Tesla (TSLA) has achieved an impressive and somewhat surprising production surge at Gigafactory Shanghai in China.
It could explain the sudden change of strategy and the start of exports.
The China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) and the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) released their October 2020 data.
It shows that the Chinese auto market has increased by 12% — continuing to quickly recover following the automotive sales crash caused by the pandemic.
Sales of energy vehicles, which include BEVs, PHEVs, and fuel cell cars increased by 105% to 160,000 units.
As for Tesla, the automaker roughly maintained its same level of sales month-to-month, but it impressed with its vehicle production.
CPCA reports that Tesla produced almost 23,000 cars out of Gigafactory Shanghai in China.
It represents a roughly 10,000 car increase month-over-month, which is an unusual production ramp.
The sudden production surge comes as we learned that Tesla changed its strategy and decided to start exporting cars out of China to other markets, including Europe.
It started with its first shipment in October, during the production surge, with 7,000 cars.
Electrek’s Take
That kind of increase month-to-month is kind of crazy and it explains why Tesla quickly changed its strategy.
We were concerned about the demand in China not being high enough and we were half right.
It’s not high enough right now for this kind of production capacity, but that production capacity is just insane.
I think it looks very good for Tesla in China at this moment amid a rapid recovery in the market.
The US might be tougher in the coming months until the pandemic is under control and we have some clarity on who is in charge of the government.
If Tesla can get back access to the federal tax credit, it would be huge for them, but the lack of clarity is going to negatively affect their performance in the market in the meantime.
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