American EV giant Tesla has cancelled plans to restart production at its Shanghai factory on Friday and Saturday, according to an internal notice, further delaying reopening of the manufacturing hub for its Model 3 and Model Y cars.
The Shanghai factory, located in the Pudong district east of the city’s Huangpu River, suspended production from Monday to Thursday after the city launched a two-stage lockdown to combat a surge in Covid-19 cases.
The lockdown on districts east of the river was scheduled to lift in the early hours of April 1 – the US automaker initially planned to resume production that day. However, in an internal notice it now says it has cancelled production plans for April 1 and April 2.
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Sources said Tesla had yet to secure permits from the Shanghai government for its trucks to deliver assembled electric cars outside of Pudong to western parts of the city.
Shanghai is set to lock down areas west of the river from the early hours of Friday morning.
The company may have also opted to extend the suspension because of a shortage of workers, with lockdowns continuing on some housing compounds, one of the sources said.
- Reuters with additional editing by Sean O’Meara
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