Gigafactory Shanghai may have been on break for a week last month due to China’s National Day celebrations, but Tesla was still able to maintain a remarkable pace in October nonetheless. As shown by recent figures from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), Tesla’s wholesale vehicle figures were still at 54,391 units, with 40,666 being exported abroad.
This is incredibly impressive for Tesla China, considering that in September — a month where the company was in full throttle in an attempt to post record deliveries before the end of the third quarter — its wholesale figures were at 56,006 units. Among this number, 52,153 were sold domestically and 3,853 were exported to foreign territories. This highlights the strong demand for the company’s vehicles.
The discrepancy between Tesla China’s domestic and export sales in October and September is no surprise, as the company typically utilizes the first half of a quarter to cater to foreign territories. This was a strategy that Elon Musk himself has highlighted on Twitter, with the CEO stating that “Giga Shanghai makes cars for export in (the) first half of quarter, then cars for far away parts of China, then cars for nearby parts of China.”
Tesla’s China-based electric vehicle plant is serving an increasingly pivotal role in the company’s global operations. Earlier this year, Tesla dubbed Giga Shanghai as its primary vehicle export hub, and so far, the facility has been playing its role very well. Tesla China has allowed Tesla to deliver vehicles like the Model Y to European territories this year, even if Gigafactory Berlin, the facility that was initially supposed to produce the all-electric crossover for the region, was delayed.
Tesla seems to be digging deep this fourth quarter. Earlier this month, electric vehicle advocates have identified at least 12 ships traveling to Europe and Asia for the fourth quarter. Ships from China comprised the lion’s share of these shipments, with only two of the vessels being from the United States. The other ten were traveling from Shanghai to Europe, likely loaded with Made-in-China Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.
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