Tesla hits pause on Gigafactory Shanghai

Tesla has temporarily suspended the production of electric cars in its industrial complex in Shanghai, China. According to Autoevolution citing its own unofficial sources, the company stopped the assembly lines for five days after failing to generate demand for its EVs – even after repeated slashing of prices.

The sources say the production was halted on April 29 until May 4. Tesla allegedly picked this interval to ease the situation for the workers, letting them take a vacation on the National Labor Day celebrated in the country. This may not seem important at all unless you consider that Tesla had never stopped the conveyor belts in China before – not even for the New Year holidays.

With the belts running non-stop, the company was on the way to churning out around 264,000 EVs in Q2 2023. Rumor has it that the new production target is closer to 200,000–210,000 units. Producing excess quantities of cars would clutter the warehouses and complicate logistics as long as the demand stays low.

The informers behind the report claim that it was neither the last nor the longest factory shutdown: with the sales failing, the company is allegedly on course to more such episodes, which could sum up to 18 idle days in Q2.