On January 14, Tao Lin, Tesla China’s Vice President, shared exciting news on Chinese social media.
Eighty-five employees from the Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory have been admitted to the Shanghai University of Electric Power.
They passed the 2024 adult college entrance examination as part of Tesla China’s “I Want to Go to College” initiative.
A Lifelong Learning Opportunity
Tesla launched the “I Want to Go to College” program in 2021 in collaboration with the Shanghai University of Electric Power.
Lin emphasized that the program is open to all front-line employees, with no barriers to entry.
So far, nearly 700 employees with high school or vocational school backgrounds have completed the program.
Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory: A Global Leader
Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory was announced in 2018. The project involved a huge investment of 50 billion yuan (about $6.82 billion).
Designed to produce 500,000 vehicles annually, it was China’s first fully foreign-owned car manufacturing project.
Construction began in January 2019, and the first vehicle was completed by December of the same year.
The factory has since achieved several key milestones:
- Produced its one-millionth vehicle in August 2022.
- The factory hit two million vehicles in September 2023.
- By October 2024, it reached three million.
Today, the Shanghai Gigafactory is the world’s largest vehicle production facility.
Tesla’s Global EV Leadership
In March 2023, Tesla became the first company to produce more than 6 million electric vehicles worldwide.
The Shanghai Gigafactory was key to this achievement, contributing almost half of the total production.
Tesla’s Strong Performance in China
In 2024, Tesla sold 657,000 vehicles in China, up 8.8% from the previous year.
December was especially strong, with sales rising 12.8% from November to reach a record 83,000 vehicles.