That's down 62 percent from June's record 78,906 units, as Tesla halted production at its Shanghai plant for about two weeks to upgrade its production lines.
Get ready to see a big drop in Tesla's China-made vehicle sales as its Shanghai plant briefly shut down production in July to upgrade its production lines.
Tesla China's wholesale sales are expected to be 30,000 units in July, according to a report released today by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
If the estimate is accurate, it would mean that China-made Tesla vehicle sales in July were down 9 percent from the 32,968 units sold in the same month last year and down 62 percent from the record 78,906 units sold in June.
The final version of the figure is expected to be released by the CPCA in the next few days.
Notably, this is not because Tesla China encountered new problems in July, but rather a brief shutdown of its factory in Shanghai to upgrade.
On June 22, Reuters cited an internal memo saying that Tesla planned to suspend most production at its Shanghai plant for the first two weeks of July in order to upgrade the facility.
After the upgrade, Tesla aims to raise production at the plant to a new record high by the end of July to get closer to its goal of producing 22,000 cars a week in Shanghai, according to the report.
On June 23, a Bloomberg report said Tesla was taking steps to boost production at its Shanghai plant, partially suspending manufacturing capacity for a different period until early August.
Upgrades at the plant are expected to be completed around August 7, when production of the Model Y will increase to 14,000 units per week from about 11,000 before the Covid outbreak, and Model 3 production will increase to 7,700 units per week from 5,500 previously, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
Tesla plans to double its original annual target to 1 million units, the people said.
On July 22, local media outlet Auto Time reported that Tesla began upgrading its Giga Shanghai in July, with the second phase of the production line responsible for producing the Model Y completing the upgrade on July 16.
The phase 1 production line responsible for producing the Model 3 began the upgrade on July 17 and is expected to be completed on August 7, according to the report.
Employees at Tesla's phase 1 production line at the plant have been on vacation since July 17 and are expected to work normally from August 8, the report said, citing multiple sources.
For Tesla China, deliveries since the second quarter have become volatile under the impact of Covid and subsequent upgrade plans.
Shanghai Pudong went into Covid lockdown on March 28, and Giga Shanghai began shutting down production at the same time, only to begin resuming limited production on April 19 and resume 100 percent capacity utilization on June 9.
This resulted in Tesla selling only 1,512 China-made vehicles in April and 32,165 in May.
In its latest report, the CPCA also expects China's wholesale sales of new energy passenger vehicles to be about 561,000 units in July, down from 571,000 units in June.
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