by HOU Ruining
Tesla on Wednesday denied reports that it intends to phase out Chinese suppliers, saying its purchasing standards are identical across global factories and do not consider a supplier's country of origin.
TAO Lin, Tesla vice-president, wrote on Weibo, a major Chinese social media platform, that the company selects suppliers in the United States, China and Europe based on quality, total cost, technological maturity and supply-chain reliability. "Origin is not an exclusionary criterion," she said.
A Tesla China spokesperson told the state-owned Shanghai Securities News that reports of the company "removing China from the supply chain" were "naccurate."
The clarification comes as supply-chain localization and U.S.–China trade frictions continue to draw scrutiny over global tech manufacturing.
Tesla works with more than 400 China-based suppliers, Tao said, with over 60 integrated into its global procurement system. More than 95% of components in China-built Model 3 and Model Y vehicles are sourced domestically.
The company operates two plants in the country — the Shanghai Gigafactory, opened in 2019, and the Shanghai Megafactory for Megapack energy-storage systems, which started production in February. Both have become central to Tesla's export operations.
Tesla delivered a record 497,100 vehicles globally in the third quarter, up 7.4% year on year. China-made cars accounted for 241,900 of those shipments. Exports from the Shanghai plant exceeded 35,000 units in October, the highest in two years, with Model Y shipments more than tripling.
The Megafactory — Tesla's first energy-storage facility outside the United States — is designed to produce 10,000 Megapacks a year, or nearly 40 GWh of storage capacity, for global markets. Tesla expects its energy-storage deployments to grow by at least 50% in 2025.
Tesla, which entered China in 2012, remains one of the country's top passenger-vehicle manufacturers. Market data show its China wholesale volume reached 61,497 units in October, ranking seventh among major automakers, with the Model Y and Model 3 its top sellers.
