SHANGHAI - Tesla's Shanghai plant, the US carmaker's first gigafactory outside the United States, delivered 947,000 vehicles in 2023, the company said on Wednesday in its production and deliveries report for 2023.

The company said the figure was a 33 percent increase from the previous year. It added that more than half of the over 1.8 million electric vehicles Tesla globally delivered last year came from the Shanghai plant.

Capable of producing a car in less than 40 seconds, Tesla's localization rate of car components used in the Shanghai factory has exceeded 95 percent. In 2023, Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai delivered more than 600,000 electric vehicles to the Chinese market.

The Shanghai plant has evolved into Tesla's main export center globally. "China has been continuously improving its level of opening up in recent years, and Tesla is both a witness and a beneficiary," said Tao Lin, vice-president of Tesla, adding that China's opening up policy, advanced development concepts, and good business environment have created massive opportunities for enterprises and that the Chinese market is a "must" for Tesla's development.

Tesla has kept revving up investment in Shanghai in recent years. The company officially launched its new mega factory project, capable of producing 10,000 Megapacks a year, in late December last year. The new project is scheduled to break ground in the first quarter of 2024 and start production in the fourth quarter.