Tesla’s Shanghai production has been affected by COVID lockdowns and supply shortages. However, Reuters reports that the company’s production has returned to 70% output of pre-lockdown levels as of Tuesday, May 31. The factory hopes to produce 2,600 vehicles each day, up from its 1,000-per-day current production.
Dan Ives, managing director and senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities, recently said that Tesla’s slowed production in Shanghai could be an “epic disaster.”
MarketWatch reported that he expects a “slower growth trajectory” in China over the second half of the year. Likewise, he has stated the signals coming out of Asia are “hard to ignore.”
On May 16, Bloomberg reported that “no vehicles were sold in Shanghai last month” as a direct consequence of the lockdowns.
The most recent Shanghai shutdown shuttered Tesla’s factories for over three weeks. Shanghai has been in lockdown for eight weeks. The lockdown is set to end on June 1, according to Fortune.
Bloomberg reports that the Shanghai plant has struggled to reopen during the lockdowns, changing plans several times. The plant had begun reopening in April with workers living on-site to reduce Covid risk. Initially, they had been returning to work for 12-hour shifts, working six days a week.
Tesla was looking into plans to resume “double shifts,” beginning in mid-May, according to Reuters.