Sunday, January 02, 2022
Plant in Shanghai moves ahead
Tesla almost doubles its deliveries
The Tesla plant in Shanghai seems to be in full swing. In the past quarter it helped the e-car manufacturer to achieve the sixth delivery record in a row. Over the year 2021, Tesla will deliver almost twice as many cars as in the previous year.
Tesla set a record for deliveries for the sixth consecutive quarter last quarter. In a Press release the US electric car manufacturer claims to have handed over 308,600 vehicles to customers worldwide. The sixth most valuable corporation in the world clearly exceeded the predictions of experts. According to the data service provider Refinitiv, Wall Street analysts had expected 263,026 vehicles.
Compared to the same period in the previous year, the number of deliveries rose by around 70 percent. In the fourth quarter of 2020, Tesla delivered 180,570 cars to customers. Compared to the previous quarter, Elon Musk’s company was able to increase the key figure by almost 30 percent.
Over the year 2021, Tesla delivered a total of 936,172 vehicles. Compared to 2020, when the company delivered 499,550 cars, that’s an 87 percent increase. In the medium term, the pioneer in the e-car industry wants to increase by at least 50 percent per year.
The e-car manufacturer continues to defy supply chain problems and the global chip shortage. Tesla pointed to higher production at its Shanghai facility. The third plant, Grünheide near Berlin, is likely to start work shortly: Shortly before Christmas, the first new model Y cars were discovered in the newest production facility, some of which is still under construction, which are said to have come from test production. In its first expansion stage, the factory will have a capacity of 500,000 vehicles per year. The fourth plant is already under construction in the Texas capital Austin, Tesla’s new headquarters. The first factory in Fremont, California, is also to be expanded.
More cars, more production defects?
Recently, however, doubts about Tesla’s product quality had been raised again. In the USA and China, the company had to recall almost 700,000 vehicles in the days leading up to New Year’s Eve due to possible safety-endangering defects.
In the USA, 356,000 “Model 3” cars built between 2017 and 2020 are affected. With them, opening and closing the trunk lid could damage the wiring harness of the reversing camera. This could cause the camera to fail. In addition, there are 119,000 “Model S” models from 2014 to 2021 in the USA. There is a risk that the bonnet will open unexpectedly while driving. In China, around 200,000 vehicles have to be checked in the workshops for the same reasons.
It is unclear whether German Tesla customers are also affected by the recall. The responsible Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA) in Flensburg has not yet been reached for a comment.