There's a bit of good news and some bad news for the Tesla TSLA in China.
The automaker delivered 100,291 EVs from its Giga Shanghai factory in November, an all-time record and the first time it has topped 100,000 deliveries, according to news agency Xinhua.
The figure represents a 40% increase month-over-month increase from October and a nearly 90% increase from a year ago. This follows month-by-month increases at Giga Shanghai after Tesla performed upgrades at the factory increase to production.
The upgrades may have been too productive in the short term for Tesla, at least in the short term. As early as this week, Tesla is said to make cuts in production, with reductions estimated to be around 20% from full capacity. Giga Shanghai was full capacity in October and November.
One person said that there is a way to increase output if demand increases, because of the decision to cut production by Bloomberg after it was evaluated by the automaker's near-term performance in the domestic market. Tesla is denying reports of a production cut in Shanghai. In a statement to Reuters, Tesla said media reports that Giga Shanghai would cut December output were untrue. Any potential reduction in production comes after the automaker decreased prices for its cars in China earlier in October and increased insurance incentives in order to boost supply.
Competition is heating up in China's EV market, the world's largest. BYD, backed by Warren Buffett, posted nearly 230 K deliveries last month, with nearly 114 K EVs and 116 K hybrids.
According to the China Passenger Car Association CPCA, Gigafactory Shanghai is extremely productive, delivering more than 650,000 vehicles so far this year, easily surpassing last year's total of 484,130.
Even if Tesla cuts production by 20%, the factory would be producing around 80 K units a month, making it the most productive EV factory in the world.