Tesla’s plant construction in full swing in Shanghai

Tesla is racing to achieve mass production in its Shanghai plant to grab the shrinking advantage of government subsidies and ease its capacity shortage, one expert said.

Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai is expected to complete construction in about four or five months, said two construction workers at the site of the facilities.

Around noon on Tuesday, work was in full swing with dozens of cranes operating. Construction workers wearing orange vests were moving back and forth between the construction site and their temporary dormitory housing.

Six rows of temporary dormitories were built by the Shanghai Construction Group, which is in charge of the phase one project of the Gigafactory. More dormitories will be built for about 1,000 construction workers.

The Global Times saw that the skeleton frame of load-bearing vertical steel columns have been installed. On top of them, four sets of steel roof grids had been installed and workers were installing a fifth row.

With the current construction speed, the factory will complete construction in July or August, a construction worker told the Global Times on condition of anonymity. His prediction was echoed by another worker who anticipated that the construction can wrap up in July.

This is faster than what has been revealed in some media reports. In March, sina.com.cn cited an industry source as saying that the Shanghai plant will be finished in the third quarter this year, and that it will be able to produce 3,000 units of the Model 3 per week starting from the end of this year.

The Shanghai Gigafactory will manufacture Model 3s and Model Ys for local customers, according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who spoke at the factory’s groundbreaking ceremony in January.