SHANGHAI -- Tesla's Shanghai plant delivered 88,869 vehicles in March, up 35 percent year-on-year, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association.

The US carmaker's R&D and innovation center in Shanghai is now carrying out more original development work on finished vehicles and charging equipment. David Lau, vice-president of software engineering at Tesla, noted that the company's teams in China ensure it can customize products for Chinese consumers.

The company's Shanghai plant delivered 710,000 vehicles in 2022, an increase of 48 percent from 2021.

Established in 2019, the Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai is the carmaker's first Gigafactory outside the United States, with an industrial chain localization rate of more than 95 percent and 99.99 percent of the employees being Chinese.

According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, China is the largest new energy vehicle production and sales market globally. In the first two months of this year, the sales volume of NEVs nationwide reached 933,000.