Tesla approaches trial production phase

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail SHINE, July 19, 2019
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk (C) attends the groundbreaking ceremony of Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory in Shanghai, east China, Jan. 7, 2019. [Photo/Xinhua]

US electric carmaker Tesla will employ more staff in Shanghai, planning to start production by the end of this year.

The company has advertised more than 60 positions of its Shanghai factory on WeChat, in the fields of software and information technology, construction, production and operation, logistic and others.

The National Business Daily reported on Wednesday that Tesla held a recruitment fair for technicians and production team managers earlier this month, offering 28 positions in seven workshops. The Chinese media also mentioned there are only two months left before trial production begins in Shanghai. 

In terms of Tesla's Shanghai plant, construction started in January and the main structure has been completed. Installation work is currently being carried out for the production facilities.

Global Vice President Tao Lin said the Shanghai factory is proceeding even faster than expected. Tao also said after three to four rounds of recruitment, the Gigafactory team has been formed but is still expanding.

Tesla's factory could open sooner than expected, according to a note released by Morgan Stanley on Wednesday.

"Our China team just returned from a visit to local Chinese suppliers with some fresh feedback on Tesla's progress with its currently under-construction Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai," Morgan Stanley analysts team said in a research note. "If they're right, Tesla may be able to ramp China production faster than we have currently anticipated in our model."

Morgan Stanley's analyst Adam Jonas said in the note that "Our China team's view of Tesla's ability to ramp domestic production and to take commercial share in the domestic Chinese market is more bullish than the forecast implied within our earnings model. We have allowed for a greater level of execution risk in our assumptions, given the complexity of bringing an all new plant with all new workers and many new suppliers on line within the Chinese market," as Business Insider reported.

Earlier this month, Ma Chunlei, director of the city's development and reform commission, said Shanghai-made Tesla model 3 will be on sale early next year. 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in April that the factory is likely to make more than 1,000 cars a week by the end of the year.

The factory is the largest foreign-invested manufacturing project in Shanghai. It is also Tesla's first plant outside the United States.

Tesla signed the agreement with the municipal government in July 2018 to build the factory. In October last year, the company was approved to use an 864,885-square-meter tract of land in Lingang for its plan, which has an annual producing capacity of 500,000 electric cars.

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