Tesla's Shanghai factory maintains output, despite epidemic

US electric carmaker Tesla said its Shanghai factory continued to achieve record levels of production in the first quarter, despite significant setbacks in the automobile industry due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Tesla said that it produced almost 103,000 vehicles and delivered approximately 88,400 vehicles globally in the latest quarter. The company credited the work of its Shanghai team for having helped to achieve these results.

Tesla delivered its first China-made Model 3s to general customers in early January. With its excellent cost performance, the locally produced Model 3 has become the choice of a large number of Chinese car buyers, the company said.

The performance of Tesla's China team was also attributed to strong support from the Shanghai government in the form of supplies and virus prevention and control measures.

According to data from the China Automobile Dealers Association, Tesla sold 2,534 vehicles in the Chinese market in February. Cumulative sales from January to February were 5,770 vehicles, an increase of 336 percent year-on-year. Tesla did not release detailed figures for the Chinese market.

As of January, Tesla has more than 50 direct-operation experience centers and showrooms as well as more than 30 service centers in China. 

In 2020, Tesla plans to deploy more than 4,000 superchargers in China and ramp up installations of its V3 supercharger (which is the level-up version of its charger) to provide an efficient charging service system for Chinese consumers.