7,000 China-Made Tesla Model 3s Headed To Europe (Pictures)

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Reporting out of China today indicate that Tesla is shipping 7,000 Model 3s from its Shanghai gigafactory to Europe. They will reportedly arrive in November at a port in Belgium.

These Model 3s will be delivered to customers in Germany, France, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, and possibly elsewhere.

Update: Some recent Tesla Model 3 buyers in Europe who are waiting on their cars have reportedly had their orders updated with a €2000 cut in the price.

Update #2: A previous update indicated that the EU import duty on US-built cars is 10% whereas it is 4.5% for China-built cars. Apparently, that is incorrect and the duty is the same for both, 10%.

As noted for us one week ago when news of this plan leaked out, Standard Range Plus versions of the Model 3 that include LFP batteries supplied by CATL are the versions of the Model 3 being shipped to Europe. At the moment, only Teslas made in China use these lower cost batteries. Further, “the LFP variant of the Model 3 SR+ actually has slightly higher range rating (468km NEDC) than the previous nickel-based battery version of the SR+ (originally 445 km NEDC).”

According to our records, this is the first time a Tesla vehicle produced outside of Fremont, California, will be shipped to Europe — or anywhere else outside of China — for Tesla customers. To commemorate the momentous corporate marker, as well as a significant milestone for both Shanghai and China, Executive Vice Mayor of Shanghai Chen Yin spoke at a ceremony at Tesla Gigafactory 3 (Giga Shanghai).

Grace Tao, Global Vice President of Tesla China, shared several photos of some of the cars, a ship, and local employees, which you can see above and below.

As Simon Alvarez of Teslarati noticed, the company even carefully arranged some of the Tesla cars in a slick way to spell out TESLA just before the cars boarded the ship.

Aside from Chen Yin and Grace Tao, notables at the event included Deputy Secretary-General of Shanghai Municipal Government Zhu Zhisong and Executive Deputy Director of Lingang New Area Management Committee Zhu Xiaotong.

“(This) is showcasing to the world not only the speed and efficiency of Chinese construction, but also the quality of Chinese manufacturing,” said Zhu Xiaotong, Tesla’s global vice-president and head of Tesla China.

Indeed — it is common in Europe and the United States to deride cheap products made in China, but I think those who follow Tesla trust Tesla vehicles made in China (the Model 3 for now and Model Y later on) are of top quality and are just as worthy of love and purchase as Tesla vehicles made in California.

Tesla Giga Shanghai is approaching production of its 100,000th vehicle. Seeing how much the Tesla China team has enjoyed celebrating various milestones, I imagine we will see more celebrations and creative ways of highlighting that milestone soon.

All photos courtesy Grace Tao


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

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