The Chinese government recently reportedly gave Tesla authorization to start Model 3 production at Gigafactory 3, but a Tesla executive has now said that production is ready and they are waiting for the green light from the government.
The start of production is going to be a major milestone since it’s going to be the first electric vehicle factory wholly-owned by a foreign automaker in China and Tesla’s second electric vehicle production factory.
After starting construction just in January earlier this year, Tesla has been guiding the start of production in Q4 2019 and recent reports indicate that the company is on schedule.
Last week, the Chinese media reported that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology gave approval for Tesla to start production at the plant.
However, they now report that Tesla global vice president for China, Tao Lin, says that production is ready, but they are now waiting for government approval:
It’s unclear what exactly is the holdup at this point, but one thing is clear: activity has significantly picked up at Giafactory 3.
The automaker is expected to announce the official start of production any day now, but it’s clear that things are moving at the factory.
CEO Elon Musk has been guiding a rapid production ramp-up in phases starting with 3,000 vehicles per week by the end of the year, which would be an even more impressive ramp-up than the buildup of the factory.