Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory has reached a major production milestone, with its five millionth battery pack rolling off the line this week. 

The achievement highlights Giga Shanghai’s role as the automaker’s highest volume manufacturing complex and primary vehicle export hub.

Giga Shanghai’s new milestone

Tesla announced the milestone on X and Weibo, sharing images from the facility where the five millionth pack was completed. Images showed the Giga Shanghai team posing for a commemorative photo with the facility’s five millionth battery pack. Several of the company’s executives congratulated the Tesla China team for its recent milestone, including SVP Tom Zhu, who wrote “Power up, team!” in a post on X.

While Tesla designs and assembles its battery packs in China, the cells themselves are supplied by local partner CATL and South Korea’s LG Energy Solution, as noted in a CNEV Post report. Tesla China has stated that its pack safety standards exceed industry norms several times over, with longevity engineered to outlast vehicle lifespans.

Giga Shanghai’s growing role

Construction of Giga Shanghai began in early 2019, becoming China’s first wholly foreign-owned auto manufacturing facility. Giga Shanghai’s first phase was completed within the year, producing Model 3 sedans by the end of 2019. It now produces both Model 3 sedans and Model Y SUVs for domestic and export markets, with an annual capacity approaching one million vehicles.

Despite the record-setting battery milestone, Tesla China’s recent domestic results left a lot to be desired. As per the China Passenger Car Association, Tesla’s retail sales in October dropped 36% year over year to 26,006 units, the lowest since late 2022. Analysts attributed the decline to Giga Shanghai’s focus on exports last month, as well as the ramp of compelling rivals like the Xiaomi YU7.

Tesla has confirmed that it will be releasing its Full Self-Driving (FSD) Supervised system in South Korea. The announcement came through a post from Tesla Korea’s official account on X, which featured a video showing the system navigating local roads in a Tesla Model S sedan.

FSD Supervised in South Korea

The teaser video posted by Tesla Korea showed a vehicle performing lane changes, navigating intersections, and even parking without driver input, all while the driver kept their hands off the steering wheel. The footage was filmed on domestic roads, suggesting that Tesla Korea has been initiating FSD test drives in the country for some time.

Tesla’s FSD software currently exists in two versions: supervised and unsupervised. The supervised version still requires driver attention, while the unsupervised variant, which is being used in the company’s Robotaxi service, allows full autonomy. Tesla has confirmed plans to expand supervised FSD to Europe, and China, as well as markets like Japan, sometime next year.

South Korea’s FSD likely for U.S.-made cars to start

In South Korea, Tesla’s popularity has surged despite FSD not yet being available in the country. This is largely due to the new Model Y, which was launched in April. Thanks to the vehicle’s reasonable price and features, the new Model Y has driven domestic sales up 92.8% year-over-year, securing Tesla’s place among the country’s top imported carmakers.

With FSD, Teslas become significantly more compelling vehicles. Analysts warn, however, that legal and regulatory hurdles could complicate FSD’s local introduction. Over 80% of Teslas sold in South Korea are manufactured in China, and those vehicles must comply with domestic safety standards, as noted in a Chosun report. 

Industry experts suggest the first wave of FSD-enabled vehicles will likely be U.S.-made, as models built under the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement automatically meet South Korean safety requirements.

“Since the supervised FSD is a technology that assists driving, its introduction in South Korea is technically feasible. However, potential conflicts with domestic road laws and safety standards are a concern,” one industry insider told local media. “US-made vehicles are not subject to South Korean safety standards due to the Korea-US FTA, making FSD implementation relatively easier, whereas the situation differs for Chinese-made vehicles.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk teased a potential job for the company’s Optimus robot last week that is straight out of the movie “Robocop.”

“Robocop” aimed to show a futuristic look at law enforcement in a Sci-fi thriller that was among the first iterations of how robots could be used for police work.

The 1987 film showcased an injured cop turning into an armed cyborg, and although Tesla’s Optimus won’t be a human-robot hybrid, Musk’s idea for the humanoid project is similar.

Musk said last week at the Annual Shareholder Meeting, where shareholders voted to approve his $1 trillion compensation plan, that Optimus could be the future of law enforcement, nearly revolutionizing the way criminals are prosecuted.

He hinted that Optimus could actually be used as a chaperone of sorts, arguing that it was a “more humane form of containment of future crime.” Musk said:

“If somebody’s committed a crime, we might be able to provide a more humane form of containment of future crime. You now get a free Optimus, and it’s just going to follow you around and stop you from doing crime. Other than that, you get to do anything; it’s just going to stop you from committing crime. That’s really it. You don’t have to put people in prisons and stuff. It’s pretty wild to think of all the possibilities, but I think it’s clearly the future.”

Elon Musk: With Optimus, we might be able to stop putting people in prison.

“If somebody’s committed a crime, we might be able to provide a more humane form of containment of future crime. You now get a free Optimus, and it’s just going to follow you around and stop you from… pic.twitter.com/Y8E2ToyNkd

— ELON CLIPS (@ElonClipsX) November 10, 2025

Musk’s overall idea for Optimus is to change the way people are able to exist, from those law-abiding citizens to others who have their run-ins with the law. Instead, the Tesla CEO believes there could be a different way to handle everything, including punishment.

It was not the only thing that Musk indicated could be changed significantly by the presence of humanoid robots, as he also said a universal basic income could be established with the help of products like Optimus.