Tesla's Giga Shanghai May Restart Production April 18

According to a recent report by Reuters, Tesla is making plans to restart production at its Shanghai Gigafactory in China. Sources familiar with the matter said the electric automaker has been told it can reopen the factory on Monday, April 18, 2022.

Tesla was forced to pause its automotive factory in China back on March 28. The freeze was recently extended indefinitely, and needless to say, Tesla has lost many units of production over the course of the last several weeks. While some reports suggested the factory would likely reopen quickly, others feared it might be a few months before China would allow Tesla to restart full production.

China is currently in a massive lockdown due to a surge in COVID-19 cases. However, it's also under increasing scrutiny as people have been practically locked in their homes for weeks, and food and supplies have become scarce.

Based on the information from the anonymous sources, Tesla has been officially given the go-ahead to make reopening plans. However, the situation could change over the weekend, so we'll be keeping a close eye on the news surrounding the Tesla China Gigafactory.

One of the private sources told Reuters Tesla will restart on Monday with just a single shift and then slowly work its way back toward full-scale production. Neither Tesla nor Shanghai's government officials responded to a request for comment at the time of the Reuters article.

Reuters also notes that this is the Tesla China factory's longest pause since it opened toward the end of 2019. Based on Tesla's internal output plans, which Reuters claims to have reviewed, the automaker lost over 50,000 units of production thus far due to the factory freeze.

Read These Tesla China Stories For Background:

Tesla Halts Giga Shanghai Production For Four Days Amid Lockdown

Tesla Extends Giga Shanghai Closure Through At Least Thursday

Tesla's Giga Shanghai not only provides vehicles for local consumption, but it's also the US automaker's main export hub. In fact, the factory has been producing vehicles for Europe since the brand's new factory near Berlin faced many delays prior to officially opening.

It will take some time before Tesla's German Gigafactory is at full capacity, and it appears Giga Shanghai will continue exporting heavily once it can reopen and ramp back up.

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