Tesla contributed almost one-quarter of Shanghai’s total automotive production value last year, local media reported, in a sign of how quickly the electric carmaker has ramped up output in China.
The US company, which rolled out its first car from its Shanghai factory in 2019, generated production value of 183.9bn yuan (R504.6bn) in 2022, accounting for 23% of the Shanghai’s total automotive manufacturing production, Chen Kele, an official at the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information, said during a media tour of Tesla’s Shanghai plant, according to local media reports.
More than half of Tesla’s global deliveries in 2022 were manufactured at the Shanghai plant, which can now produce a maximum of 1.1-million cars a year.
The production value generated by Tesla’s China factory also increased Shanghai’s overall industrial production by 1.3 percentage points last year, Chen said. The carmaker’s push to localise parts procurement has created 100,000 jobs at suppliers and brought 60 Chinese parts makers into the company’s global supply chain.
Local authorities will continue to boost ties with Tesla in bringing autonomous driving and robot modules to Shanghai, Chen said. That is a pivot from the relatively conservative attitude the state has previously shown towards Tesla’s self-driving functions.
In 2021, Tesla cars were banned from Chinese military complexes and some government facilities due to concerns about sensitive data being collected by cameras.
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