BEIJING, April 14 (TMTPOST)— It seems that more and more Tesla’s rivals in China failed to avoid the material fallout from the resurgence of Covid-19, highlighting the prolonged supply chain disruption in Tesla’s most important market outside its homeland the United States.
Source: Visual China
“Maybe all the automakersin China have to shut down or close their factories in May, if suppliers in Shanghai or areas around the city still can’t find the dynamic way to reopen or resume their production, ” He Xiaopeng, cofounder and chairman of Xpeng Inc, warned in a message on his WeChat MoMents. He expressed his strong desire for more support from the relevant authorities and mutual effort from the private sector and the government agencies. The good news is that some authorities were working hard to coordinate the production and covid restrictions, he added.
He’s warning suggests another leading electric vehicle (EV) maker in China come to a grinding halt, joining in a group of automakers including FAW Group, BMW Brilliance and Tesla China, which suspended work at its Shanghai Gigafactory on March 28.
Last weekend, Xpeng’s competitor NIO announced to halt vehicle production. The supply of auto parts have cut off since the mid March, and things became worse for more partners failed to keep supplying owing to Covid surge in Shanghai, its neighbor province Jiangsu and other places, NIO CEO William Li explained. Our company is not isolated case as many businesses had to suspend production, Li noted.
A day before He’s warning, Great Wall Motors informed that a total of eight supply chain partners of its luxury SUV model Tank 300 have closed down production or delivery service, due to Shanghai, Ji Lin and many other cities’ Covid spike.
A number of automakers had to shut down their factories since March, when Shanghai and Jilin, two automobile manufacturing hubs, reported the upward trend of Covid cases. In that month, outputs of FAW Car Company’s luxury car Hongqi slumped 73% from a year ago, while FAW-Volkswagen, SAIC-GM, and Beijing Benz saw the year-over-year decline of 45.8%, 31.3% and30.7% in their production respectively, according to China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
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