Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai is about to double in size as it commits to Model Y

Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai looks like it’s about to double in size as shown in a new drone video amid Tesla committing to producing the Model Y in China.

The automaker built a giant factory in Shanghai and started production at the facility within a year, but it was only the beginning.

Gigafactory Shanghai currently produces Model 3 vehicles, but it is still building only just over 30% of the parts locally and still relies heavily on other production facilities.

The automaker has been expected to expand the factory in order to vertically integrate the production to achieve a greater percentage of locally produced parts in the made-in-China Model 3.

Furthermore, Tesla is also going to produce the Model Y at Gigafactory Shanghai as soon as next year.

Amid the rapidly changing landscape and economy due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tesla wanted to make clear that they are not slowing down their investment in new production capacity, especially when it comes to Model Y.

CEO Elon Musk said during a conference call last week:

“We are absolutely continuing our Model Y capacity expansion at full speed at both Giga Berlin and Giga Shanghai and here in Fremont when they will let us continue.”

Over the past few months, we have been reporting on some drone flyovers of Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai showing the expansion to house the new Model Y production capacity as well as new battery module and pack manufacturing.

Now a new drone video shows just how massive the new building are now that they have their steel frames:

As the drone video shows, in addition to the giant new building, which seems almost as big as the first phase of Gigafactory Shanghai, Tesla has several other smaller but still large buildings being built on the site.

These new buildings are expected to enable battery module and electric motor production.

Tesla Shanghai is reportedly now capable of making 3,000 Model 3 vehicles per week and during its Q1 results, Tesla announced that it is ramping up to 4,000 per week within the next few months:

“Our Gigafactory Shanghai ramp is progressing according to plan. Due to better than expected progress, we believe Model 3 will achieve a production rate of ~4,000/week (or ~200k/year extrapolated run rate) by mid-2020. Thus far, we have been able to ensure component supply in order to continue operations at the facility.”

As for Model Y production, it is expected to start next year, but the exact timeline is unclear.