SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Electric vehicle giant Tesla is suspending production at its Shanghai factory for two days, according to a notice sent internally and to suppliers, as China tightens COVID restrictions to curb the country’s latest outbreak.
The Shanghai factory runs around the clock and suppliers and Tesla staff were told on Wednesday in the notice, reviewed by Reuters, that production would be suspended for Wednesday and Thursday.
It did not give a reason for the stoppage at the plant, also known as the Gigafactory 3, which makes the Tesla Model 3 sedan and the Model Y crossover sport utility vehicle.
Many cities across China, including Shanghai, have been carrying out mass testing and have cordoned off apartment and office buildings in a bid to stem the country’s largest outbreak in two years. The measures have also caused factory shutdowns in parts of the country, putting pressure on supply chains.
Tesla did not have immediate comment.
Tesla’s Shanghai factory produces cars for the China market and is also a crucial export hub to markets such as Germany and Japan. It delivered 56,515 vehicles in February, including 33,315 for export, according to the China Passenger Car Association.
That amounts to an average of around 2,018 vehicles a day.
It was not immediately clear whether the suspension of work would apply to other plant operations over the two days.
Two people briefed on the notice said they understood it applied to Tesla’s general assembly lines. They declined to be identified because the information was not public.
The notice did not specify whether the measures would correspond to a loss of production, or whether Tesla could make up for any lost output when it restarts operations.
(Reporting by Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
