Yesterday morning, Tesla fan and investor Sawyer Merritt tweeted out some images of Tesla Model Y and Model 3 vehicles parked at Shanghai's Luchao port. The cars are ready to be loaded onto a cargo ship for export. According to Wu Wa, loading was already starting yesterday as well.
While posting images of inventory in parking lots has been frowned upon by many in the Tesla community, that's because there's usually minimal information about the lot itself, the reason the cars are there, how many cars are actually on-site, etc. However, in this case, we have solid background information about the Tesla vehicles, and Merritt actually took the time to count them.
Merritt says he counted some 5,200 while watching the video above. He also notes that there are many cars blocked by buildings, so he couldn't accurately count them. And, if you watch the video around the 4-minute mark, you'll clearly see that while it would be possible to get a general idea of the total number of cars, there's no way to count them all. That said, Merritt estimates there are at least 5,500 or more Tesla vehicles in the lot awaiting export.
Despite the continued global struggles from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a massive global chip shortage, Tesla was able to break production and delivery records yet again in 2021. The company aims to up its volume by some 50 percent in 2022, and it made it clear it could potentially do so without its two new factories coming online.
Tesla has also made it clear that Giga Shanghai is officially its primary export hub. The factory has already proven that it can produce many more vehicles than Tesla's original estimate, and, as you can see, it doesn't seem like there has been any slowing over the first month of 2022.
Some Tesla skeptics will almost certainly say this is bad news for Tesla. The reason behind such comments would be that perhaps Tesla may be struggling to sell its cars in China, so it has to send them elsewhere. However, if you follow Tesla closely, you may know that the automaker aims to focus on exports early in the quarter, followed by local deliveries toward the end of the quarter.
Reports suggest Tesla could be on track to produce 1 million EVs in China in 2022, and sell at least 1.3 million cars globally on the year. For reference, Tesla's record-breaking deliveries for 2021 came in under 1 million in total.
If the automaker can produce 1 million EVs in Shanghai alone, in addition to its Fremont output, it makes sense that a 50 percent increase is possible this year just from the two factories. Tesla produced more cars in Fremont in 2021 than any other automotive factory in North America, at an impressive 444,600.
Add whatever the automaker can crank out of Giga Austin and Giga Berlin, and Tesla's 2022 production and delivery story could be huge. How many cars do you think Tesla will produce and sell this year?
