Made-in-China Model 3 delivery staff will be contacting reservation holders for handovers soon, said the Vice President of Tesla Global Grace Tao. The VP of Tesla China made the announcement on New Year’s Eve. It must have been overlooked with all the festivities. Now, however, it’s 2020, and Tesla China is once again focused and ready for action.
“In the preparation of the MIC Model 3 delivery, our delivery staff will start to contact the owner of the car in the order of booking as soon as possible. Happy New Year!” said Grace Tao in a post on her Weibo account on New Year’s Eve.
The day before 2019 ended, Gigafactory 3 and Tesla China celebrated its accomplishments with ceremonial MIC Model 3 deliveries. A few GF3 workers received the first-ever locally-made Tesla sedan in China on December 30.
2019 was a big year for Gigfactory 3 and Tesla China. There was a lot of waiting around for licenses and tax, or incentives to be approved for the China-made Model 3. 2020 will be a different game, which is why the Tesla community is waiting for the mass delivery of GF3’s MIC Model 3. It will mark the beginning of Gigafactory 3's contributions to Tesla.
Currently, the Shanghai factory’s output is 280 vehicles a day, Tesla China executives shared at the ceremonial MIC Model 3 delivery event. With that production rate, Gigafactory 3 is close to producing 2,000 units a week, which is not far off from the goal VP Grace Tao announced for the automaker’s Shanghai branch a couple months ago.
In late October, Grace Tao estimated that Tesla Gigafactory 3 would produce 3,000 Model 3 units a week. With the announcement, the automaker's Global VP revealed how serious Tesla China was about its goals.
“Based on the positive business environment in Shanghai, many of Tesla’s innovations will come to fruition. Based on the recent developments, choosing Shanghai as the first Tesla overseas manufacturing site was the best decision,” Tao said.
Now that 2020 has officially come and Tesla China has most of what it needs for the MIC Model 3, it will be interesting to see how the next-gen automaker as a whole develops in the next few years. Gigafactory 3 is predicted be a real game-changer for Tesla in 2020 and the years to come.
Featured Image Credit: Ray4Tesla/Twitter
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Claribelle Deveza
Longtime writer and news/book editor. Writing about Tesla allows me to contribute something good to the world, while doing something I love.