Elon Musk is keeping his China promise. Tesla on Friday said that it will start deliveries of its new Made-in-China Model 3 cars from December 30. The announcement follows Tesla's long wait for an official sales approval of the vehicle.
Tesla has been moving at an aggressive pace at the Shanghai factory from the day it began construction of the facility. The rush to start deliveries of its all-electric Model 3 is understandably in a bid to capture the electric car market in China, which is growing at a rapid pace.
Big leap for Tesla
The US electric carmaker on Friday said that it will deliver its Made-in-China Model 3 cars to 15 customers on December 30, thus keeping its promise to start deliveries of the vehicle this year itself. Starting deliveries on December 30 means Tesla has managed to pull off an almost impossible task of construction, production and deliveries within a record time. The construction of the Shanghai Gigafactory began only 357 days ago.
This is also a new record for carmakers across the globe with operations in China. That said, the first 15 customers will all be Tesla employees. The electric carmaker has also started contacting the Chinese media as it has plans to hold a lavish delivery event.
Tesla increases pace in China
Tesla is fast trying to capture the electric car market in China. It aims to produce 250,000 vehicles annually in its Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai after adding Model Y. It is likely that the company will pacify the deliveries in January as it has been steadily producing and shipping Made-in-China Model 3 cars out of its Gigafactory over the past few weeks.
Tesla broke ground for its Gigafactory only in January and since then has been aggressively ramping up production. The company has also been hiring in Shanghai Gigafactory. It launched its Made-in-China Model 3 car in November and at that time had said that it will start deliveries of the vehicles before Chinese New Year, which is on January 25.
China too has been quite supportive of Tesla and has aiding the company's operations. Model 3 is priced $50,000 before subsidies. It is likely that the price of the vehicle will come down as Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has already recommended the car and has included it in a list of energy-saving vehicles that will be exempted from purchase tax.
