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Tesla’s Supercharger production facility in Shanghai goes online

The Tesla Model 3 at a Supercharger. (Photo: Tesla)

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Tesla’s Shanghai Supercharger production plant has gone online, the company announced today.

“Today, with the strong support of Shanghai governments at all levels and Tesla’s rapid advancement, the Tesla Shanghai Supercharging Pile Factory was officially completed and put into production, representing the industry’s leading third-generation Supercharging pile (V3) was officially off the assembly line,” Tesla’s China Charging Team wrote on its official Weibo page.

Tesla announced that it would begin producing Superchargers in Shanghai at a dedicated plant on November 5th, 2020, with the intention of widening the availability of its charging infrastructure in the country. Tesla has seen some astronomical growth in sales, and thanks to the introduction of the Model Y in China, figures are only going up. The need for a Supercharger expansion has been recognized by the electric automaker. In just over two months since the announcement, the plant is online and producing Tesla-specific charging stalls. Tesla did state that the project was officially erected in August 2020, making it just over five months that the project was completed from start to finish.

Tesla planned to invest ¥42 million, (6.4 million USD) into the new factory, but the company did not disclose the final cost of the facility in its announcement.

In 2020, Tesla focused not only on ramping up its production and delivery processes in its initial year in China but also on the Supercharging rollout so that owners could charge their vehicles.

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The company wrote:

“In the whole year of 2020, Tesla has built more than 410 Tesla Supercharging stations in mainland China, including more than 180 Tesla V3 Supercharging stations. In the future, with the production of Supercharging piles in China, it will not only accelerate the popularization of V3 Supercharging piles in China, but also contribute to the development of new infrastructure of charging piles in China.”

Reuters wrote in its November report of the Supercharger plant that the facility will be located near Giga Shanghai, Tesla’s Chinese production facility. The plant already produces the Model 3 and Model Y, but thanks to overwhelming support for the automaker, Tesla is planning to bring on a Design Director to handle new vehicles in China.

CEO Elon Musk indicated during the company’s recently held Q4 2020 Earnings Call that China is a hotspot for Tesla’s vehicles, and the support the company has received has been astounding.

“Well, we currently are winning that — we are currently the leader in the Chinese EV market. So I think we’re mostly doing something right if we’re the best-selling electric car in China,” Musk said. The Model 3 held 11% of the total EV market share in China in 2020, selling 139,925 vehicles, the EV Sales Blog reported. The second closest competitor was the Wuling HongGuang Mini EV from GM, with 119,255 total sales.

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Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Cybertruck

Tesla launches Cybertruck orders in a new market with a catch

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla is launching Cybertruck orders in a new market, but there’s a bit of a catch.

The Cybertruck was launched in the Middle East earlier this year, as Tesla launched the ability to place a reservation for the all-electric pickup in the United Arab Emirates. It would be the first market outside of North America that would have the ability to place an order for the Cybertruck.

Tesla confirms Cybertruck will make its way out of North America this year

Other markets where the vehicle has been widely requested, like Europe and Asia, have still not approved the vehicle to be sold to the public, mostly because of size and design restrictions.

However, in the UAE, Tesla is opening up the ability for those who placed reservations for the vehicle to finally put in their order. The Order Configurator is only available to those who have already placed a reservation; it is not yet available to the public.

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Tesla said it would open up the public online configurator across the Middle East in the coming weeks:

The UAE is not the only country that will have access to the Cybertruck, as fans in other Middle Eastern countries will also be able to place orders soon. Tesla announced back in April that Saudi Arabia and Qatar would also have Cybertruck deliveries.

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These vehicles will be built at Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas plant just outside of Austin, as Gigafactory Berlin and Gigafactory Shanghai, two factories located in the same hemisphere as the Middle East, do not have established lines for Cybertruck production.

As for the other markets, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hinted that the company could develop a smaller Cybertruck for those markets, as he admitted that in the long term, it likely made sense to build a more compact version for regions where roads are traditionally tighter.

Elon Musk hints at smaller Tesla Cybertruck version down the road

There has been no evidence of Tesla developing this more compact version, but it could eventually happen.

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Tesla rolls out new life-saving feature for kids in Europe

On average, 37 children die every year from being left in vehicles unattended.

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tesla model x
Credit: Tesla

Tesla is rolling out a new life-saving feature in the European market, one that has been available in the United States for some time and can be considered potentially invaluable.

One of the most preventable causes of death for children is being left in cars unattended. On average, 37 children die every year after being left in hot vehicles. The cause of death is usually heatstroke, and it is incredibly avoidable.

Tesla rolls out new crucial safety feature aimed at saving children

However, there are instances where kids are left in vehicles and lose their lives, something that many companies have tried to fight with alerts and features of their own.

Tesla is one of them, as it has rolled out features like ultrasonic sensors to detect heartbeats, interior cameras to detect movement, and alerts to notify parents if they leave someone in the car.

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A few months ago, Tesla rolled out a new feature called “Child Left Alone Detection” in the United States. It was described as:

“If an unattended child is detected, the vehicle will flash the exterior indicator lights, play an alert tone, and send a notification to your Tesla app. This will repeat at regular intervals until you return to your vehicle. Cabin data is processed locally and is not transmitted to Tesla.

This feature is enabled by default. To disable, go to Controls > Safety > Child Left Alone Detection.”

This feature was only rolled out in the U.S. at the time. It is now making its way to the European market, according to Not a Tesla App, which detected the rollout in the 2025.32.6 software update.

The rollout of this feature could specifically change many unfortunate situations. For many of us, it seems hard to think about leaving something as precious as another human life in a hot car. Many of us won’t leave our vehicles without our cell phones, so it seems unlikely that someone would do it without a child.

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Tesla gets another NHTSA probe, this time related to door handles

“Although Tesla vehicles have manual door releases inside of the cabin, in these situations, a child may not be able to access or operate the releases even if the vehicle’s driver is aware of them.”

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla is facing another investigation into its vehicles by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), this time related to an issue with its door handles.

In a new Open Investigation named “Electronic door handles become inoperative,” the NHTSA says that it has received nine complaints from owners of the 2021 Tesla Model Y stemming from “an inability to open doors.”

These issues were reported after “parents exited their vehicle after a drive cycle in order to remove a child from the pack seat or placing a child in the back seat before starting a drive cycle.” Parents said they were “unable to reopen a door to regain access to the vehicle.”

Tesla door handles become unlikely hero as they stump road rager

Four of the nine complaints ended with having to break a window to regain access to the cabin.

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The NHTSA goes on to explain that, while Teslas do have a manual door release inside the cabin, a child may not be able to access it:

“Although Tesla vehicles have manual door releases inside of the cabin, in these situations, a child may not be able to access or operate the releases even if the vehicle’s driver is aware of them. As a result, in these instances, an occupant who remains inside a vehicle in this condition may be unable to be rapidly retrieved by persons outside of the vehicle.”

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It appears that the agency is attributing the issue to a low voltage in the vehicle’s 12V DC battery. This would mean there needs to be some sort of notification to the driver that the battery is running low on power and should be replaced to avoid this issue.

The NHTSA estimates that 174,290 vehicles are potentially impacted by this issue. It plans to assess the scope and severity of the condition, the agency says. The NHTSA also wants to see what approach Tesla uses to supply power to door locks and the reliability of the applicable power supplies.

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