A number of engineers and production staff from Tesla’s recently upgraded Shanghai plant in China will be sent to the electric carmaker’s plant in Fremont, California, to assist in boosting production and reducing delivery times according to a new report.
Sources familiar with the plan told Bloomberg that the employees are automation and control engineers. Around 200 Tesla employees are expected to move from Shanghai to California for at least three months in order to complete specific assignments, beginning this month. A Tesla representative in China declined to comment.
Read: Tesla Smashes Monthly Record Of Chinese-Built Models After Shanghai Gigafactory Upgrade
Tesla’s updated Gigafactory in Shanghai China has an annual production capacity of 1 million vehicles
Tesla recently updated its Gigafactory in Shanghai targeting a 50 percent increase in deliveries. The production capacity in Shanghai has grown to approximately 1 million vehicles per year, compared to 650,000 at the Fremont plant. Note that Tesla’s Shanghai plant only makes the Model 3 and Y, while the California factory produces the entire range of EVs including the Model 3, Y, S, and X.
The upgrades that took about five weeks, resulted in record deliveries of 83,135 cars in China last September. The production boost contributed to shorter waiting times in China from a peak of 22 weeks earlier this year to only 1-4 weeks today. Waiting times in the US are still quite long, stretching to April 2023 for a Tesla Model Y. During the third-quarter earnings presentation, Elon Musk admitted that Tesla had trouble transporting its vehicles in the US, claiming that are not enough boats, trains, and car carriers to deliver them to customers.
Besides the Gigafactories in Shanghai and California, Tesla also has factories in Germany and Texas. The automaker delivered a total of 343,830 vehicles in the third quarter of 2022, and expects to end the year close to its target for 50 percent growth compared to 2021.
