Tesla Shanghai plant to remain closed amid lockdown

[SHANGHAI] Tesla's factory in Shanghai will remain closed on Monday (Apr 4), people familiar with the matter said, after a media report that the company planned to resume production at the facility on that day.

The electric-vehicle maker told employees on Sunday that existing Covid restrictions remained in place, and asked staff to stay home and abide by community orders, according to an company memo seen by Bloomberg. Tesla has extended the shutdown of its Gigafactory a few times in the past week as Shanghai puts its 25 million residents in some form of lockdown.

Reuters reported earlier that Tesla plans to resume production in the factory south-east of downtown Shanghai from Monday as some workers begin to return from a lockdown. The eastern half of the mega Chinese city - where the Tesla factory is located - remains under tight movement restrictions despite the end of a 4-day sweeping lockdown last Friday morning.

The city will start a new round of mass testing on Monday, according to local authorities. More than 8,000 new Covid infections were reported in the city on Saturday, including 7,788 asymptomatic infections.

Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk said in a tweet that China's Covid Zero policies and general supply-chain interruptions made the first quarter "exceptionally difficult", after the company delivered record amount of cars. BLOOMBERG