Tesla gears up at Shanghai plant as Model Y Performance spotted Down Under

The expansion of Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory, aimed at enabling production capacity of one million EVs a year, is complete, new reports say.

And in order to achieve its production goals, thousands of new staff are being employed, increasing worker numbers by almost a third.

Meanwhile in Australia, a Performance Tesla Model Y has been spotted.

What do all these developments mean for hundreds of Tesla Model Y Performance owners and will they be able to receive their cars on this side of Christmas?

Tesla expansion to produce 22,000 EVs per week completed

New reports from Shanghai as seen on cvevpost suggest that Tesla’s expansion to make Shanghai the largest vehicle export hub has been completed and to staff the expansion the company is taking on 4,000 new employees. 

The largest export hub would mean Tesla’s GigaShanghai plant will be able to produce over 22,000 EVs per week.

Other production data from recent months have indicated that the focus for the plant is to be producing the Model Ys. Over twice as many Model Ys were being produced as Model 3s in recent months. 

This trend is set to continue even after the expansion as Model Y demand surges globally, including in markets like ours here in Australia.

What is different though for Australian drivers is that there is only one dual-motor variant of this extremely popular SUV EV currently available.

That’s the Performace variant which has hundreds of orders in Australia. When would the customers be expecting to see those?

First Model Y Performance Spotted

Deliveries of the Model Y began in August in Austraia. Deliveries continue in September, and The Driven understands hundreds more deliveries are set to occur between now and the end of September.

But none so far are the Model Y Performance.

A Model Y Performance has been spotted in Victoria by EVAustralia and also confirmed in carloop’s data as a Performance model back in July 2022.

However, this one though does not seem to be a customer vehicle that was ordered in June when the Model Y orders opened as it has a build year of 2021 according to its Vehicle Identification Number (VIN).

Australian Customers waiting for this performance-orientated dual-motor model will have to wait a bit longer. 

With the recent plant upgrades and additional workforce being added to the Shanghai Gigafactory, the Performance builds for Australia are expected to arrive on this side of Christmas.

Variety of EVs charge the uptake

With EVs here to stay and manufacturers like Tesla expanding their lineup in Australia, it’s looking to be an exciting couple of months for EV uptake. 

Sales results for the fourth quarter of 2022 will have the most variety of EVs we’ve seen so far. Affordable EVs like the new BYD Atto 3 and MG to premium options such as the performance-based Tesla Model Y and Genesis GV60 are all on offer. 

The key differentiating factor is who can supply to our market. At this stage, Tesla and BYD seem to be leading the pack when it comes to global production ramp-ups of EVs that Australians can purchase. Get ready to see many more of these EVs on our roads.