Tesla Made Up Almost Half Of China's NEV Exports In H1 2022

Tesla shipped 97,182 vehicles from Giga Shanghai in the first half of the year, while China's total NEV exports amounted to 202,000.

By: Dan Mihalascu

Jul 18, 2022 at 10:18am ET

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Tesla's Gigafactory Shanghai plant accounted for almost 50 percent of China's New Energy Vehicle (NEV) exports in the first half of 2022.

That's a significant achievement that underlines the factory's importance not only for Tesla's exports—it's the company's biggest export hub—but also for China's exports of electrified vehicles.

According to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), total vehicle exports from China reached 1.22 million units in the first half of this year, up 47.1% from a year earlier.

NEVs, which include plug-in hybrids (PHEV) and battery electric vehicles (BEV), made up 16.6% of the total or 202,000 units—up 1.3 times year-on-year. While CAAM's release did not break down the number of NEV exports by propulsion type or brand, CnEVPost crunched the numbers and learned that about half of the NEV exports were contributed by Tesla.

The US EV maker's Shanghai plant exported 97,182 vehicles in the first half of 2022, which equates to 48% of all NEVs exported from China in the same period and more than double the number of vehicles Tesla exported in the first half of 2021 (41,770 units).

Gallery: Tesla Giga Shanghai (Tesla Gigafactory 3)

Looking at the numbers compiled by CnEVPost, Tesla could have done a lot better were it not for the Shanghai lockdowns that brought Gigafactory Shanghai's exports down to zero vehicles in April.

In addition, Tesla only exported 60 vehicles in March and 968 in June, which can be attributed to the company's traditional end-of-quarter rush to satisfy domestic demand in China. The factory delivered 65,754 vehicles in China in March and a record 78,906 in June.

Basically, the bulk of Tesla's H1 2022 exports were shipped during three months: January (40,499), February (33,315) and May (22,340). Gigafactory Shanghai is estimated to have produced nearly 300,000 vehicles in the first half of 2022, which means that overseas exports made up about one-third of total production.

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Following June's weak exports, Tesla is now said to be making steady progress in cross-border logistics efficiency and actively resuming exports. Shanghai Securities News reported last week that the company has a large number of vehicles ready to be shipped.

Tesla started to export China-made Model Y vehicles in June to Asia-Pacific markets such as Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.