Advertisement
Tesla
TechBig Tech

Elon Musk heads to Shanghai for first deliveries of made-in-China Teslas to public

  • Tuesday marks the first deliveries of Tesla Model 3 sedans made at its Shanghai plant to the general public
  • It comes at a challenging time in China’s auto market, where forecasts point to a third-straight annual drop in total sales

Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends the groundbreaking ceremony of Tesla Shanghai Gigafactory in Shanghai, east China on January 7, 2019. File photo: Xinhua
Bloomberg

Elon Musk plans to attend a ceremony to mark the first deliveries of made-in-China Tesla vehicles to customers on Tuesday, according to people familiar with the matter.

Tesla, which is already churning out more than 1,000 Model 3 sedans a week at its plant on the outskirts of Shanghai, handed over a batch of cars to a select group of employees on December 30, but Tuesday marks the first deliveries to the general public. The ceremony is due to start at 3pm local time at Tesla’s first factory outside the US, a milestone in Musk’s plans for the company he founded to go global.

Yet it comes at a challenging time in China’s auto market, where forecasts point to a third-straight annual drop in total sales. Electric vehicle (EV) sales plunged 42 per cent in November from a year earlier as the government pared back subsidies on purchases. In a bid to lure buyers, Tesla cut the starting price of its China-build Model 3 sedans by 9 per cent so that they will be more closely aligned to some local EV makers. It may cut prices further midyear as it increases localisation of components, people familiar with the matter have said.

“The demand for our locally-built model 3 is very good,” Allan Wang, general manager of Tesla China, said last week. “We are confident about selling all vehicles manufactured in this factory.”

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

After capturing about 5 per cent of China’s car sales, the slowdown for electric vehicles could spell trouble for a launch that investors are watching closely for evidence that Tesla has what it takes to go global. A slow start for sales of its made-in-China cars would put more pressure on the unprofitable manufacturer’s finances, giving Musk little room for missteps to support a stock that is hovering at an all-time high.

Advertisement