Tesla planning to resume production at Shanghai plant from tomorrow: Report

EV giant Tesla is planning to resume production at its Shanghai manufacturing plant from Monday, April 5 after halting production for over a week, Reuters reported, citing two sources. Production at Shanghai factory is crucial for the automaker as it produces cars for the China market and is also a crucial export hub.

The company has halted production at the factory since March 28 as the Chinese government launched a two-stage lockdown that started in areas east of the city's Huangpu River where Tesla's plant is located. However, the plans to resume production can change due to Shanghai's evolving COVID-19 policies, one of the sources told Reuters.

Tesla had originally planned to halt operations for four days only, but it cancelled production plans for Friday and Saturday as well after the authorities extended tight movement restrictions in the eastern half of the city. Virtually all of the Shanghai is currently under lockdown.

The seven-day halting of operations at Tesla's Shanghai factory marks one of the longest suspensions since the factory started production in late 2019. Tesla manufactures 6,000 Model 3 and 10,000 Model Y cars per week at its Shanghai factory. The company's CEO Elon Musk tweeted that this was an "exceptionally difficult quarter due to supply chain interruptions and China zero Covid policy."

Yet, the electric car maker is expected to announce another record quarter despite industrywide supply-chain woes as the world’s top maker of electric vehicles benefits from high gas prices pushing more buyers toward plug-in models.

The company likely delivered 309,158 vehicles globally during the first three months of the year, according to a dozen analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Tesla handed over about 308,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter, which was its best performance to that point.