Gary Zhou 
Recent images from Tesla’s Gigafactory Shanghai complex suggest that the Made in China Model Y stamping press is about to be installed. The photos bode well for the Shanghai-based factory’s development, as it indicates that Model Y test runs might actually start sooner than anticipated, maybe as early as this year’s end.
The pictures from Giga Shanghai feature a massive stamping press that looks all but completely set up. One end of the massive machine also included a banner that read “上海特斯拉冲压生产线上梁大吉,” which roughly translates to “Good fortune for finishing the installation of Giga Shanghai stamping line.”
The stamping area at Gigafactory Shanghai is located at the tail end of the Phase 1 building where the Model 3 is being designed, based on the company’s Q4 2019 Update Document. Seeing that the Model Y factory resembles the design of the preceding Model 3 plant, it seems fair to assume that the recently built stamping machine was also mounted on the tail end of the Phase 2A building as well.
This would be quite an interesting setup, as the factory Model 3 and the factory Model Y appear to be connected through their stamping areas. Recent drone flyovers have shown that this could be the case, as a “sky bridge” between Phase 1 and Phase 2A buildings now appears to be visible. The emergence of this system opens up plenty of speculation about Tesla’s China development plans.
It should be noted that while Model 3 and Model Y share about 75% of their parts, they manufacture the two vehicles very differently. This was proven by a detailed teardown of an early production Model 3 and Model Y from noted car veteran Sandy Munro, with the study revealing that the all-electric crossover has much more efficiencies in manufacturing than its sedan counterpart.
Bearing in mind the completion of the stamping press of the Model Y plant, as well as the existence of a sky bridge between the two manufacturing facilities in the Giga Shanghai complex, it appears that Tesla is now just months away from launching Model Y test runs for the Chinese market. But this time around, the refinement of the manufacturing process of the vehicle will probably be smoother, especially since the facilities of Model 3 and Model Y are apparently designed to share some of their operations.
Reported by Teslarati.
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