AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)12/25 Report--

Tesla suspended production at the Shanghai plant on Saturday, suspending most of its shifts in the last week of December, according to an internal notice and two people familiar with the matter. According to the report, Tesla's Shanghai factory cancelled its morning shift and told all workers in the factory's most productive manufacturing center that they could start to rest, but did not give a reason for suspending production.

So far, Tesla has not made any official response to the above news.

In fact, it has been reported online not long ago that Tesla plans to reduce the production capacity of the Shanghai plant by 20 per cent, and that Tesla's Shanghai plant will suspend production of Model Y at the end of this month.

Tesla plans to reduce Shanghai super-factory capacity by 20 per cent, according to online news on December 7th, saying this is the first time Tesla has voluntarily reduced production at the Shanghai factory. According to people familiar with the matter at that time, the move was related to the fact that the demand in the Chinese market did not meet Tesla's expectations, and it was also a decision made by Tesla after assessing his recent performance in the domestic market. Tesla has enough flexibility to increase production if demand increases. The news was later officially denied by Tesla, Tesla said: "the report that the company's Shanghai factory will reduce production is not true, Tesla Shanghai super factory production rhythm is normal."

Tesla Shanghai Super Factory will suspend production of Model Y models from December 25, 2022 to January 1, 2023, according to an internal memo. Tesla aims to produce just over 20, 000 Model Ys in the last three weeks of December, including the week when production is about to be suspended. For comparison, weekly production of the Model Y remained at around 13000 in November, equivalent to 39000 in three weeks. People familiar with the matter also said at the time that the suspension of production of Model Y models was also part of Tesla's previous plan to cut production by 30 per cent, which would reduce production of Model Y by about 30 per cent compared with November. At the same time, a piece of news that Tesla will shorten the working hours of employees on the Shanghai factory production line as early as next Monday and has postponed the appointment of some new employees has also circulated on the Internet. However, on this news, Tesla internal staff responded that the news is not true and said: "Why stop production?" It's a rumor. " A week ago, Tesla also said that the suspension of production was a rumor.

According to previous reports from the automotive industry, the Shanghai factory is Tesla's first overseas factory, which is located in the new Lingang area of Shanghai, covering an area of 860000 square meters, including vehicle production area, test area, parts production area and joint workshop (maintenance workshop). It mainly produces Model 3 and SUV Model Y cars. Data show that in 2021, Tesla Shanghai Factory delivered a total of 484000 new cars, accounting for 51.7% of Tesla's total global delivery. it is Tesla's first single market in the world, including 169853 domestic retail vehicles for Model Y and 150890 for Model 3. After entering 2022, the factory was affected by the outbreak in the first half of the year and was forced to suspend production several times. In July, Tesla began to upgrade the production line of the Shanghai factory. After completing the renovation plan in early August, the plant's production capacity has climbed to 1.1 million vehicles, an increase of about 127% over the same period last year, making Tesla the super factory with the highest capacity.

It should be noted that not long after the upgrading of the Shanghai factory, Tesla launched a wave of large-scale marketing activities. since September, Tesla has launched many price reductions and promotional activities in the Chinese market, including a reduction in the prices of Model 3 and Model Y models on sale in Chinese mainland, with a price reduction range of 14000 yuan to 37000 yuan. At the same time, the car pick-up cycle has been shortened again and again, to this month. Tesla has successively introduced a number of time-limited preferential measures. Take the purchase of Tesla in Shenzhen as an example, if Tesla is picked up in December, after a combination of various subsidies, the cumulative subsidy will eventually reach 33000 yuan.

For Tesla's purpose of launching promotional activities one after another, the industry generally believes that the reason is that Tesla's current Shanghai factory capacity has greatly increased and the market demand has not met expectations. As for Tesla's Shanghai factory, it has been exposed that it has stopped production. The reason is also related to overcapacity in Shanghai factories. According to the official website, the delivery time for any version of Model 3 or Model Y ordered in China is December, which means the car can be picked up that month, which means that Tesla's Shanghai factory has inventory. In order to improve sales digestion capacity, stimulated by a series of measures, Tesla got a good response in November. According to the latest data from the Federation of passengers, Tesla's wholesale sales in November were 100291, an increase of 89% over the same period last year and 40% month-on-month, setting a new monthly delivery record. Data show that by the end of November, the Tesla Shanghai factory had delivered a total of 655000 new cars in 2022, of which 285900 were delivered by Model Y in the first 11 months, up 121.0 per cent from the same period last year and down 7.3 per cent from the same period last year.

Tesla delivered a total of 908000 new cars worldwide in the first three quarters of 2022, according to official data, meaning Tesla needs to complete a shortfall of more than 500000 vehicles in the fourth quarter to achieve his annual sales target. Although the capacity growth rate of Tesla's Shanghai factory has improved, unlike many car companies, Tesla's failure to meet his target is not due to insufficient capacity, but to a backlog of inventory and lower-than-expected sales of new cars. In October 2022, Tesla Shanghai Super Factory produced a total of 87706 Model3 and Model Y, with delivery of 71704 vehicles and inventory of 16002 vehicles. There exists the phenomenon of "high inventory", obvious gap between production and marketing, or the reason for Tesla's frequent promotional activities. Tesla is still facing severe sales pressure.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat