Tesla has indicated that it plans to invest almost $200 million to expand Gigafactory Shanghai and hire 4,000 more people.
Gigafactory Shanghai has been an incredible success story for Tesla.
The automaker achieved an annualized production capacity of 500,000 electric vehicles at Gigafactory Shanghai within two years of starting production at the new factory.
It might be the fastest production ramp of any car factory ever.
Now Tesla has filed with the local government for an expansion of the plant worth up to 1.2 billion yuan ($188 million).
There aren’t many details about the expansion in the filing other than increasing the capacity for 4,000 more employees [via Reuters]:
The filing showed that expansion will allow Tesla to add 4,000 staff, taking the number of people the plant can employ to 19,000. There will be no change to the models the factory currently produces, according to the filing, which also did not specify how much production capacity will be increased.
Tesla currently produces Model 3 and Model Y at Gigafactory Shanghai, and this expansion would be about increasing production of those vehicles based on the filing.
The automaker also plans to eventually produce a $25,000 electric car designed and engineered in China, but the project is expected to still be a few years out.
Recently, Tesla turned Gigafactory Shanghai into its new “export hub.” It was previously its Fremont factory.
The factory is increasingly becoming a major part of Tesla’s operations, as is the Chinese market.
As we recently reported, Tesla has been able to maintain an impressive output of over 54,000 vehicles out of Gigafactory Shanghai over the last few months.
If maintained over the long term, it would already exceed the planned capacity of 500,000 vehicles currently disclosed by Tesla.
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