Tesla China VP: “Everything Will Be Back To Normal Very Soon.”
Tesla China Global Vice President Grace Tao recently gave an interview and said that she was extremely confident that everything will be back to normal very soon in regards to the reopening of Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai after it had been shut down due to Covid-19.
Tao was interviewed by Xinhua News Agency. Thankfully, @JayInShanghai shared the English subtitles provided by @ShanghaiDaily.
[ENGLISH SUBTITLE] Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai – Exclusive Interview with Grace Tao Tesla’s Global VP. Interview conducted by Xinhua News Agency. Subtitle by @shanghaidaily @elonmusk @Tesla @42how_ #GigaShanghai $TSLA pic.twitter.com/IjFkEhZNHw
— Jay in Shanghai 电动 Jay (@JayinShanghai) April 20, 2022
Gigafactory Shanghai reopened on April 19, with 8,000 employees going back to work. Grace Tao shared more details.
“In the morning, battery and motor production is up and running again. Around 1 pm, vehicle assembly is being gradually increased. Today (April 10), the gigafactory resumes small-scale production. And tomorrow, we will have capacity gradually climbing over before a single shift is running at full capacity.”
The video noted that the resumption of production is on closed-loop management. Song Gang, senior director of manufacturing at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai, pointed out that this was helpful to the suppliers and logistics chain.
“It helps the logistics chain and suppliers get ready So today (April 19) in the afternoon we resume 80-90% of regular production. In addition to this, over 100 of Tesla’s components suppliers started resuming production and logistics gradually. Tao shared more details about the suppliers and the list.
“Moreover as the industrial chain of automobiles is very long the resumption of Tesla means that many of our suppliers need to follow suit to ensure sustained and stable production. We have made a list of more than 100 suppliers on the industrial chain and sent it to the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information governments in Shanghai and the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council in Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces.
Xinhua News also pointed out something we’ve mentioned a time or two before. Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai is the first wholly foreign-owned car manufacturing factory in China. This is something that America should be proud of, as Tesla is an American company and its ability to be the first shows China’s respect for Elon Musk. Although I don’t personally agree with how the government of China runs things, and many Americans don’t either, China is the world’s largest market for vehicles and electric vehicles, and for Tesla to succeed, it needs to have a good working relationship with the Chinese government.
Gang shared a little bit about how Tesla China is ensuring the safety of its workers as the Covid-19 pandemic is surging in China.
“The workers are tested twice a day. In the morning they receive rapid antigen tests and in the evening PCR test. Moreover, there are four processes of disinfection and sterilization including their office, and hand sterilization. And the workers need to stick to strict social distancing while working.”
Tao spoke of the resilience of the industries.
“We are extremely confident about China’s development. And we believe that the COVID is just a quiz or challenge. While we are resuming, we see that the industries are still very resilient. And we believe that everything will be back to normal very soon.”
During the Tesla Q1 2022 earnings call on April 20, CEO Elon Musk also echoed this when he said that Giga Shanghai would come back with a vengeance.
“We did lose a lot of important days of production..a lot of suppliers lost many days of production. But Giga Shanghai is coming back with a vengeance. We will see a record output … this quarter.”
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