Tesla's Shanghai plant is making great progress in promoting the use of local parts, which is steadily increasing and driving the development of upstream and downstream industries, according to Wang Hao, general manager of Tesla China.

"The production and transportation of vehicles and parts is also a significant source of carbon emissions, so we are insisting on local production and increasing the use of local parts," Wang said in a speech at a forum today.

Tesla's Shanghai plant has been under tight watch for its use of local parts, as Tesla claims to price its vehicles based on costs, and changes in the use of local parts directly affect the pricing of China-made Tesla vehicles.

During Tesla's second quarter earnings call in July last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the proportion of local parts at Tesla's Shanghai plant was expected to reach 80% by the end of 2020.

Wang said in his speech that Tesla is continuously improving the design and manufacturing of the factory in the process of building the new factory, and timely updating and optimizing the existing process flow to achieve efficient and environmentally friendly production.

Because the components are different from those of traditional cars, Tesla's corresponding equipment and process carbon emissions are greatly reduced during production, he said.

Wang said Tesla's vehicles have saved 5.637 billion liters of gasoline and reduced 16.96 million tons of CO2 emissions in 2020, equivalent to 90 percent of a major energy country's total transportation emissions in 2018. "With the recent launch of the domestic Model Y, we hope to make an even greater contribution to transportation emissions reductions."

(Source: Tesla)