Tesla is extending its production shutdown at Gigafactory Shanghai, its most productive factory, as it is having issues securing its workforce amid lockdowns throughout the city to limit the spread of COVID-19.
As we reported earlier this week, Tesla had to halt production at Gigafactory Shanghai as the city is shutting down due to a surge in COVID-19 cases.
The automaker had planned to restart production on Friday, but those plans have now been delayed.
Reuters says it obtained an internal memo confirming that the production restart is delayed:
“Tesla has cancelled plans to resume production at its Shanghai factory on Friday and Saturday, an internal notice seen by Reuters showed, further delaying reopening of the manufacturing hub for its Model 3 and Model Y cars.”
The lockdown on the side of the city where the factory is located is lifting tomorrow morning, but a lockdown on the other side is starting at the same time.
Tesla thought that it could restart production at that point, but now it believes that it won’t have enough workers to successfully relaunch production as some of them will be affected by the second stage of the lockdown.
Based on the estimated production rate at Gigafactory Shanghai, Tesla could be missing out on about 2,000 vehicles per day that the factory is shut down.
It comes during the last days of the quarter, and Tesla is expected to release its Q1 2022 delivery and production numbers during the weekend.
Last quarter, Tesla announced record production and deliveries of over 305,000 vehicles.
The first quarter of the year is traditionally slower, especially since Gigafactory Shanghai has become Tesla’s most productive factory and the Chinese New Year break starts during the quarter.
But this quarter could be particularly lower due to not one but two factory shutdowns due to COVID-19 restrictions.
We should have a better idea of the impact in the next few days as Tesla releases its Q1 2022 results.
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Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
