Tesla Expanding Shanghai Gigafactory With $188 Million Investment

Tesla is now the most valuable automaker by a massive margin and a lot of its success is hidden in its vertical integration. Tesla currently has three massive global facilities active for manufacturing called Gigafactories. Its Shanghai facility serves the Chinese market but is also an export hub and now it is further expanding its capacity with a $188 million investment. The facility currently employs 15,000 people, but now this expansion will further increase the number to 19,000.

While the capacity is being expanded, there is no change in the models that Tesla plans on making at the facility. It already makes the Model 3 and Model Y from the facility. It can make half a million cars a year and currently, it has already been making 450,000 cars a year.

Tesla makes the Model Y and Model 3 at the facility

The automaker is seeing a massive surge in sales in Mainland China which is one of its biggest markets. To serve Europe, this very facility also exports the Model 3 from the very same facility. It is also the first factory of a foreign automaker in China that doesn't operate as a joint venture with a local player.

Tesla has also closed deals with battery players like CATL and BYD in China which is giving it access to cheaper and more durable batteries. This is the very same Shanghai factory that will likely deliver Tesla's to India, if and when, the brand launches its electric vehicles in India.