The Production Capacity Is Not Enough, Zotye Will Come Together? Tesla: Impossible!

"Many people are popular", it is no exaggeration to describe Tesla. As Tesla's global vice president and Tesla's spokesperson in China, Tao Lin also assumed the role of a "specialist in anti-counterfeiting".

On March 13, in the face of netizens' questions about "Tesla's acquisition of Zotye", Tao Lin scolded it on Weibo as "naked fake news."

A letter of commitment signed by the Zhejiang Provincial Market Supervision Administration and Zhejiang Zotye Automobile Co., Ltd. quoted on Weibo shows that they will not engage in relevant business activities before obtaining approval procedures, and the sign is stamped by Tesla (China) Co., Ltd. , signed by Zhu Xiaotong, President of Tesla Greater China.

Tao Lin said bluntly in the comments, "The content of this document is not true, and the signature and official seal are also forged, and it has been suspected of a crime. This kind of rumor-making behavior is to deceive the majority of netizens, and we will report the case to the public security organs in time."

Rumors of Tesla's interest in acquiring Zotye Motors began around March 2021. At that time, some netizens analyzed that Musk had the willingness to acquire traditional Chinese car companies, and that the three major bases of Zotye Auto in Yongkang, Jinhua and Hangzhou are very close to Tesla headquarters, and the state has liberalized foreign acquisitions and controlling Chinese car companies. Restrictions, Zotye Auto has revised the articles of association of the unrecognized legal person of the president... From time to time in the industry, news of Tesla's acquisition of Zotye Auto came out.

With Tao Lin's blunt denial, this rumor was stifled in the cradle. However, as the old saying goes, there is no wind and no waves. On the one hand, there is an electric pioneer force that is booming and urgently needs to expand its production capacity, and the other is a traditional fringe car company that is precarious and hovering on the brink of bankruptcy. The two protagonists are in very different situations, but together they demonstrate the increasingly fierce and polarized competition in the auto market.

For Tesla at the moment, the lack of production capacity is its most "sweet trouble".

According to data recently released by the National Passenger Vehicle Market Information Association, in February 2022, Tesla’s wholesale sales in China reached 56,000 vehicles, the sixth consecutive month that sales exceeded 50,000 vehicles, and the annual cumulative sales reached 116,300 vehicles. Among them, the domestic retail volume in February was 23,000, and the export volume was 33,000, accounting for more than 66% and a year-on-year increase of 339%. According to other data, Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory is fully loaded, with monthly output exceeding 50,000 units for six consecutive months.

However, one side of the coin is the production and sales volume in full swing, and the other side is the longer and longer delivery time of its models. According to information on Tesla's official website in China, the estimated delivery time for the full Model 3 series and Model Y long-range version has been extended to 20 weeks, and the longest waiting time for the Model Y rear-wheel drive and high-performance versions has reached a maximum of 16 weeks. week.

Faced with rapidly growing orders and anxious consumers, Tesla had to find ways to increase production capacity. According to Tesla's 2021 annual report, at present, Tesla is planning to increase production capacity as soon as possible. It is expected that the average annual growth rate of vehicle delivery will reach 50% in the next few years, and the Shanghai Gigafactory will become Tesla's main export center.

In February 2022, Tesla wrote in the EIA report of the first phase of the Shanghai Gigafactory Project (Phase I) - Parts Production Process Improvement Project (Capacity Adjustment) that in order to meet export demand, it plans to increase production workshops and increase workers. Multiple methods such as quantity and increasing equipment start-up rate increase component production capacity.

In addition to the expansion of existing production capacity, there is also a lot of news that Tesla will build a second factory in China. In 2021 alone, Qingdao, Jinan, Hefei, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Chongqing and other cities are rumored to be the location of Tesla's second factory; in February this year, the Liaoning Provincial People's Government Office The “Liaoning Release” public account hosted by the office revealed that Tesla’s second factory will be located in Shenyang; not long ago, during the National People’s Congress and the National People’s Congress, a number of CPPCC members submitted to the Fifth Session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference “On Supporting Wuhan’s Urban Circle to Play Radiation” In the joint proposal to build the city cluster in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River into an important growth pole in the central region of my country", it also specifically mentioned that it is necessary to "promote the second Tesla factory to settle in the Wuhan city circle". However, they were all refuted by Tesla officials one by one.

The mystery of Tesla's second factory in China remains to be solved, but there is no doubt that Tesla has already started planning to build a second factory in China. According to people familiar with the matter, Tesla will start the site selection process for the new factory this year, and will finalize the location city in 2023.