Progress on Tesla's Shanghai "Gigafactory" Revealed

ELECTRIC car manufacturer Tesla is currently building its third "gigafactory" in Shanghai, China.

It is the first such facility being constructed outside of the United States (US), the first two factories are located in Reno, Nevada and Buffalo, New York.

Above: Construction on Tesla's first gigafactory outside of the US is progressing rapidly (image courtesy of New China TV).

The plant, located on the city's south-eastern edge and worth an estimated USD $7.3 billion, is the largest foreign manufacturing investment in Shanghai to date. 

Preparatory works on the 86-hectare site started in December 2018 with construction breaking ground in January 2019. The first phase of the project is expected to complete at later this year.

Above: The project broke ground in January 2019 (image courtesy of New China TV).

As seen from the latest footage, construction of the new "gigafactory" is proceeding at a rapid pace. With the facade almost completed and the internal fit-out underway, the factory could start production later this year.

The maximum capacity of the first phase of Shanghai's "gigafactory" will be 250,000 electric cars a year, but estimates diverge as to when this milestone will be reached.

While Tesla CEO Elon Musk believes this could happen by 2020, some analysts see this as too optimistic and think this goal will be reached at some time after 2021.

At a later stage, the facility could be extended further and may be able to eventually double its output to 500,000 electric vehicles per year.

Above: A render of Tesla's first "gigafactory" in Reno, Nevada, which is also constantly extending to meet demand (image courtesy of Tesla).

Tesla is also planning to build a "gigafactory" in Europe, but its location has not yet been determined.