Made-in-China Tesla cars wait to be shipped overseas outside its factory in Shanghai. Photo: cnsphoto

US-based new energy vehicle (NEV) producer Tesla celebrated a milestone on Wednesday as its Shanghai Gigafactory produced its 2 millionth vehicle. This achievement highlights the company's expanding production capacity, which has been facilitated by China's robust and comprehensive supply chain, as well as supportive policies for the growing domestic NEV industry.

Experts said that Tesla's latest accomplishment once again exemplifies China's willingness to collaborate and share its development benefits with foreign countries, including the US. This cooperation allows them to directly benefit from China's growth, and it contrasts with the US decoupling policy targeting China.

It took 33 months for the Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory to reach its first "1 million vehicles" milestone, but it only took 13 months to progress from "1 million" to "2 million."

The achievement of 2 million vehicles is another milestone for Tesla China, the company said in a statement sent to the Global Times on Wednesday, noting that it may take an even shorter time to get to the 3 millionth vehicle.

This is not the first time that the Shanghai Gigafactory has notched impressive progress. Construction of the factory began in January 2019, and it completed the first batch of Model 3 deliveries by December of the same year. 

To have reached 2 million complete vehicles in just four years makes the Shanghai factory the most efficient in Tesla's history.

The factory's automation rate has reached more than 95 percent and work that normally takes thousands of people to do now only takes dozens of people, the company said.

Tesla China's wholesales in the first half of this year were 464,000 vehicles. This means that over 50 percent of Tesla's global deliveries of 889,000 electric vehicles in the same period came from the Shanghai Gigafactory, according to the company.

Cui Dongshu, secretary general of China Passenger Car Association, told the Global Times, on Wednesday that in addition to the high popularity of Tesla in China, the 2-million milestone reflects the fast-growing development trend of NEV companies in China, driven by supportive policies and high consumer acceptance as the nation puts more weight on green transformation.

"Tesla's success is another clear indication that the US company is gaining direct benefits from China's advanced and complete supply chain," Cui said, indicating the different approach that the US has taken toward Chinese firms with its "decoupling" policy measures.

China's NEV industry is booming, with industry players expanding and trying to seize more market share.

In August, BYD's 5 millionth new energy vehicle officially rolled off the assembly line, ushering in a new development milestone for the 20-year-old company. The fast development of home brands like BYD has also challenged Tesla to come up with finer and cheaper vehicles in order to secure its market share in China, Cui said.

China has mastered the core technology of NEVs and has a complete industrial chain. China now ranks first in the world in terms of exports of NEVs, and more than 60 percent of the world's NEVs are produced and sold in China.