Video’s and pictures from Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory show metal wall and roof framing. The factory building and site appear on track for May 2019 completion. Tesla will keep up the construction speed to build automotive assembly line as fast as possible. Cars produced from the Shanghai factory will be able to avoid tariffs.
Only two months ago, the Tesla Shanghai site was dirt.
Elon Musk had remarked that the Fremont assembly line that was built under a tent was put together in three weeks.
Initial setup of vehicle production equipment will start this May. Tesla will likely start setting up production while other parts of the building are being completed.
It would make sense for Tesla to setup assembly and production lines as quickly as they were setup for the Fremont tent line.
Awesome giga3 progress.$tsla .@elonmusk #Tesla #Spacex pic.twitter.com/Wk5aArphft
— Chao Zhou (@realChaoZhou) April 15, 2019
True giga3wall has been built.$tsla #Tesla #ElonMusk #Spacex pic.twitter.com/LpMlx4hKMe
— Chao Zhou (@realChaoZhou) April 14, 2019
Guys, quick video of giga3.$tsla #Tesla #ElonMusk #SpaceX pic.twitter.com/tmTVLFwrvA
— Chao Zhou (@realChaoZhou) April 15, 2019
SOURCES- Chao Zhou Twitter, Youtube
Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com

Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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IIRC Tesla stated from the onset they wanted to source batteries for Shanghai factory production from local cell manufacturers. Also AFAIK the production bottleneck is the paint shop operation in Freemont not cell production.
There are rumors now Panasonic is throwing away a half million cells daily while delivering 3 million daily, due to sloppy workmanship and poor cleanliness. Sounds like their Gigafactory operation needs someone to clean house…
Yup! They aren’t drinking the Musk Kool-Aide like almost everyone else here on these forums.
Or, Panasonic knows more than you do. It is after all, a bigger deal for them than it is for you to motivate them to be more diligent.
Link to article, which seems to point the finger squarely at less demand than anticipated being the reason
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Tesla-and-Panasonic-freeze-spending-on-4.5bn-Gigafactory
EDIT: but here is Musk saying it is Panasonic not meeting goals
https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1117144865299501056
Extra! Extra!
Read all about it!
Building has walls and roof! Musk does it again!
According to both Tesla and Panasonic the plan is to increase the efficiency of the current lines, rather than create new ones. Elon specifically mentioned the S-Curve when ramping production. Where did Panasonic say that Tesla is too risky?
OR…
Tesla, with their recent purchase of energy storage leader Maxwell, decided there’s a better way of moving forward and wants to ditch its current partner. Sometimes it’s that simple.
Panasonic has apparently decided to limit expansion with Tesla, including for the Shanghai plant, calling Tesla ‘too risky’. And Tesla has said Panasonic has not been meeting promised production-line rates, and has said they might bring in other battery makers for Shanghai.
Panasonic’s position that Tesla is too risky for them to invest in expanding capacity doesn’t seem to make sense. Even if Tesla can’t absorb their production, other car makers are expanding their capacity and could probably absorb excess production.
Musk’s claim that Panasonic isn’t providing enough cells to meet Tesla needs sounds rather more likely. Tesla’s deliveries were down in Q1 – which would match with battery shortages as a limiting factor, as in 2018 they would have been absorbing battery stocks built up while model 3 production was limited by other factors.
Panasonic may have decided they can’t affordably boost Giga-factory production closer to what they claimed they could do, and so may be pushing Tesla to pay them more per cell so they can afford to build more production lines to supply what Tesla needs.
Tesla might shift pricing to increase sales of models with smaller batteries – seems likely they prefered selling the bigger/pricier models while they had plenty of batteries, but maybe that has now changed? 310 mile range is nice for bragging, but is far more than needed for commuting or city driving.