New data from the Chinese Passenger Car Association (CPCA) shows that Tesla sold 28,219 Giga Shanghai-produced EVs in July, down by 64% compared to June sales.
This is the factory that supplies cars to the Australian market. What caused this and what does this drop in July production mean for thousands of Model 3 and Model Y holders in Australia?
Giga Shanghai Production drop expected in July
Tesla’s production and sales saw a decline from the highs of June when the factory produced over 70,000 EVs.
The drop in production was expected as Tesla set to upgrade its GigaShanghai production facility. Despite this, Tesla has managed to deliver two ships to Australia containing June-built Model Y and Model 3 EVs.
The upgrades now allow Tesla to produce over 2,000 Model Y vehicles a day as it makes a bid to catch up with global demand. Model Y, Tesla’s family SUV seems to be kicking goals in various markets around the world, including in Europe which is mostly supplied by Giga Shanghai, and in California.
RWD wait times in Australia to potentially come down
Tesla has just reduced the time for its most popular Model Y RWD model in China by two weeks. According to CNEVpost, the wait time for new orders is down to 8-12 weeks. Previously it was 10-14 weeks.
This is also a good sign for existing Australian customers too who have orders for RWD Model Ys but which were not on the first few ships to Australia in August.
Currently, the local Model Y RWD delivery wait time is still February to May next year for new orders but that may change over the coming months also, as Tesla catches up with the huge demand for its EVs in 2022.
This includes demand from the right-hand drive markets like ours in Australia where orders opened just over 2 months ago on June the 10th.
With that in mind, the production upgrades that caused the lower production in July are now mostly behind Tesla’s Shanghai production facility.
This means thousands more EVs are being produced for Australian order holders in the coming months which will be great for EV uptake for the remainder of 2022.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.