Tesla Begins Delivery Of First China-Made Model

Electric vehicles maker Tesla Inc. TSLA on Monday delivered the first 15 units of its China-made Model 3 cars to the employees who had pre-ordered it, Reuters reported.

What Happened

Model 3 is the first vehicle made at Tesla's Shanghai "gigafactory," the company's only manufacturing plant in China, which still remains under construction after work began in December last year.

The Elon Musk-led company has delivered the model in less than a year, beating the January 25 deadline it set earlier.

"From now onwards China-made Model 3 vehicles will start running on China's large streets and small lanes," the company's vice president Tao Lin said at the delivery ceremony in Shanghai, as reported by Reuters.

Lin said that the sale of the debut model has been "very good" so far, and the company plans to ramp up production in the coming months.

The production of the Model 3 began in October, and Tesla started taking pre-orders the same month for the car priced starting $50,855 (355,800 yuan), excluding Chinese government subsidies on electric vehicles.

Why It Matters

Tesla has been trying to take hold of what is the world's largest electric vehicle market.

The sale of electric vehicles tanked 45% year-on-year in October in China, as the government reduced subsidies, but most automakers are expecting the market to keep growing in the coming year, Reuters reported earlier in November.

Apart from Tesla, other leading global automakers including Germany-based Volkswagen AG VWAGY, Japan's Toyota Motor Corporation TM, Mercedes Benz parent company Daimler AG DMLRY are similarly trying to establish themselves in the Chinese market.

Price Action

Tesla's shares closed 0.13% lower at $430.38 on Friday. The shares gained $0.37 in after-hours trading.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Tesla.com