Tesla Inc. is putting thousands of workers in China in vacant lots and a former military camp as it tries to add a second shift and speed up production.
Tesla Inc. is isolating thousands of workers in China in empty buildings and an old military camp to make sure that they are COVID-19 free. This is part of a large-scale plan by the electric-car maker to speed up production at its plant in Shanghai as the city comes out of lockdown. As Gigafactory Shanghai keeps running on a closed-loop system, Tesla China’s second shift will finally get some new workers.
According to a report by Bloomberg, before second-shift workers can join the other workers in Giga Shanghai’s closed-loop system, they have to stay in quarantine for 48 to 72 hours, which the Chinese government requires.
Once the two groups of workers are placed together, they will live in a campground and empty factories near Tesla’s plant with mobile toilets and showers. Special buses will take them each day from the temporary housing to the manufacturing plant, according to sources that cannot be identified due to private plans.
Since mid-April, employees on the first shift have been sleeping on the floor of the Gigafactory. They work 12-hour shifts, six days a week, to get production back up and running after the three-week shutdown. The workers for the second shift were scheduled to return on May 16, but plans were pushed back. The closed-loop system will remain until June 13, according to Teslarati.
Tesla, however, has not made any comments regarding the matter.
Last month, Gigafactory Shanghai was back in production after its temporary shutdown. Since then, Tesla has produced 26,000 vehicles and has made multiple exports already.
