Tesla was hoping to resume production at Giga Shanghai on April 1, but facing rising COVID cases and stricter lockdown measures, the shutdown has been extended.
The factory was expected to be shutdown from March 28 until April 1, in line with the lockdown period for areas in the east of the Huangpu River, where the plant is located.
According to an internal notice seen by Reuters, Tesla has cancelled plans to restart production on Friday.
The notice did not say when Tesla expects to be able to restart production.
The change in plans is likely the results of stricter lockdown measures put in place by the local government.
On Thursday morning Shanghai announced a complete lockdown of the city, with people being told not to leave their homes, not even to get food as residents will have to rely on delivery services for now.
According to the government’s official WeChat account, every person will need to be tested for COVID-19 and there is no timeline for when the measures will be lifted.
Even if Tesla is able to work with government officials to get the factory up and running as they were earlier this month, they will likely face issues from their suppliers as their workers will likely still be quarantined.
