Tesla's Gigafactory in Shanghai Photo:VCG

 

The first batch of electric vehicles (EVs) from Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory were shipped off on Wednesday after production resumed on April 19, marking a major step in Shanghai's efforts to contain the COVID-19 outbreak and ramp up work resumption.

The vessel Glovis Splendor carrying 4,767 EVs produced by Tesla's Shanghai plant departed on Wednesday morning from Shanghai's Nangang Port to Luka Koper Port, Slovenia.

"As soon as the cars were produced on Tuesday afternoon, Tesla rushed to load the ship," He Dong'an, an official from Yangshan Customs, said in an interview with local media outlet Shangguan Observer.

According to customs requirements, export enterprises should complete loading and declare shipments to customs 24 hours in advance. However, the loading and declaration of Tesla was at least half a day earlier, showing its urgency to deliver orders, He noted.

Shanghai is China's largest vehicle import and export hub, accounting for about 70 percent of the country's foreign trade in automobiles. Amid the new wave of COVID-19 flare-ups, Tesla was put on the city's first "whitelist" of key enterprises allowed to resume work and production. 

According to a statement sent to the Global Times, Tesla had produced 10,000 vehicles as of April 30 since its resumption of production, even though its capacity has not yet fully recovered. 

From January to April, it delivered 183,686 vehicles, an increase of more than 1.7 times compared with the same period last year, and even surpassing the number of vehicles delivered in 2020.

According to media reports, Tesla will export 4,100 EVs on May 13, showing that the company is rushing to make up for production reduced by the epidemic. Last year, Tesla predicted that the number of exports from Shanghai port would reach 300,000 units in 2022.

CEO Elon Musk said at an auto summit held by the Financial Times on Tuesday that the company will expand production at its Shanghai plant.

Affected by the coronavirus, China's auto production and sales in April declined significantly, but sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) retained strong momentum.

Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed that in April, the production of NEVs recorded 312,000 units, an increase of 43.9 percent, while sales totaled 299,000 units, up 44.6 percent year-on-year.

From January to April, the country has produced 1.61 million units of the NEVs, while selling 1.56 million units, both up 1.1 times year-on-year despite the epidemic.

The container throughput of Shanghai port has also continued to maintain a good momentum of recovery. According to the Ministry of Transport, in April, the container throughput of Shanghai port reached 3.09 million standard containers, recovering to 80 percent of the level during the same period last year. 

In the first four months, 15.35 million containers were handled, an increase of 1.8 percent year-on-year.

Global Times