Tesla’s sales in China down by a third as Shanghai plant shrinks production
Tesla continues to suffer from Covid-induced supply chain issues, with car sales in China slumping 35.7 per cent.
Data from the China Passenger Car Association published today highlighted that in April the EV giant produced 10,757 China-made vehicles and sold 1,512 of them – the lowest in two years.
Numbers also went down compared with the record month of December 2021, when Tesla sold 70,847 China-made cars.
Supply chains were severely disrupted by China’s reaction to the latest Covid wave, which saw authorities implement a ‘Zero Covid’ policy of hard lockdowns all over the country.
In Shanghai, which is currently in its sixth week of lockdown, factories faced mounting difficulties due to a lack of labour and materials.
After a 22-day closure, Tesla reopened the doors of its Shanghai gigafactory on 19 April and implemented a “loop system” which requires employees to live on-site and work six days a week for 12 hours.
However, Elon Musk’s company had to shrink production due to problems securing parts for its cars.
In a memo seen by Reuters today, Tesla said it would produce less than 200 cars per day, 83.3 per cent down on its daily production of 1,200 units.
According to sources, the company was forced yesterday to halt production, despite announcing last week it wanted to ramp up numbers by next.
China’s manufacturing PMI has fallen to a 26-month low, going down to 46 per cent. Both output and new orders slumped to the second-lowest since 2004.