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Oct. 14 (NBD) -- U.S. electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla is revving up construction of its Shanghai Gigafactory in China, and the facility is forecasted to be put into operation as soon as next week, according to media reports.

Tesla has acquired key approval from the Chinese government but didn't announce the exact time of the plant's operation.

It is noted that late September, the main body of the Shanghai factory was completed, and the first Model 3 body-in-white rolled off the production line. 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the Gigafactory in Shanghai will have a weekly production capacity of 1,000 units by the end of this year, and the figure will expand to 3,000 vehicles next year.

At the time when production is to start, the second phase construction of the factory kicked off. An aerial video taken by a drone operator and a Tesla enthusiast showed that the large piece of land has been paved, the roof trusses of new buildings have been installed, and the supercharger station has been initially completed in the site.  

Compared with the first phase that took more than eight months to complete facility construction, the second phase of the project, which comprises the battery manufacturing plant and the energy center, was significantly accelerated and is scheduled to be finished by the end of this year.

Tesla is seeing China as an important market to it, especially amid the slowdown of global EV sales.

The global sales volume of EVs is predicted to reach 1.5 million units this year, less than estimated 1.6 million units.

In contrast, the EV maker's business in China is growing rapidly. Tesla generated 1.469 billion U.S. dollars from the Chinese market in the first half of 2019, up 41.80 percent from 1.036 billion U.S. dollars during the same period of the previous year.

Besides, data shows that as of this August, the annual import volume of Tesla surged by 168 percent year on year, which was largely contributed by Model 3 sales. This August, the number of Tesla cars imported topped 3,700 with a sharp rise of 468 percent year over year.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn