Tesla has notched another major manufacturing milestone, this time in China, with Giga Shanghai officially producing its five-millionth electric drive system on January 8, 2026.
Tesla’s in-house three-in-one electric drive system — which integrates the motor, gearbox, and inverter into a single compact unit — is at the heart of every Tesla vehicle built today. According to the company, the design delivers higher energy conversion efficiency while reducing size and weight, helping improve both performance and long-term durability across its lineup.
Giga Shanghai’s latest milestone builds on a string of record-setting achievements at the plant. In late July 2024, Tesla confirmed that its 10 millionth electric drive system globally rolled off the line in Shanghai — the first Tesla-made component ever to reach eight figures.
That earlier milestone included output from Giga Nevada in the United States, which itself has become a powerhouse for drive unit production. Nevada produced its six-millionth drive unit in late December 2025, highlighting how Tesla is scaling its powertrain operations across continents in parallel.
Shanghai, however, remains Tesla’s largest and most productive factory. Construction of the site began in January 2019, with production starting by the end of that year — making it China’s first wholly foreign-owned car manufacturing project.
Just one month ago, Tesla rolled out its four-millionth China-made vehicle from the site — a six-seat Model Y L — followed by the company’s nine-millionth global vehicle on December 30. The plant also posted one of its strongest sales months ever in December, delivering more than 97,000 vehicles last month, including domestic Chinese sales and exports to Asia-Pacific and Europe.
For the full year, vehicles produced in Shanghai totaled approximately 851,000 units, accounting for more than half of Tesla’s global deliveries and reinforcing the factory’s importance to the company’s worldwide growth strategy.
