Tesla Shipped China-Made Model Y to US to Assess Build Quality as Giga Shanghai Production Imminent

Tesla delivered a China-made Model Y to the United States, possibly to evaluate the vehicle's build quality at its Shanghai Gigafactory.

Yesterday, pictures of Model Y appeared on the network, which was spotted at Port of Tacoma. The vehicle was covered with a protective film with a camouflage color to prevent damage to the body, and in order to hide possible new design elements of Model Y. The shape of the license plate was atypical for the US, and corresponds to the European or Chinese shape. A lot of people have speculated that this is a made-in Fremont Model Y that will be shipped to China.

The photo was accompanied by the comment that it is a right-hand drive vehicle. However, it is impossible to see the real location of the steering wheel in the photo, and those people who shared this photo leave this question unanswered. Therefore, at the moment, nothing can confirm this statement.

Right hand drive Y arriving at Port Of Tacoma ⚡️🔋🚗 pic.twitter.com/xQh4OTnPRn

— Mo Suraj (@moosuraj) December 24, 2020

Today Tesla tracker @VedaPrime/Twitter has shared additional information that has brought some clarity to the origin of this car. He wrote that this Model Y is from Giga Shanghai, which was shipped on December 9, and arrived at Tacoma port on December 23rd.

A #Tesla Model Y has been spotted in Tacoma in the US, unloaded from Ship Tulane. The car from from Tesla Shanghai (Dec 9 -23)

This unit appears to be headed for US Tesla review pic.twitter.com/Plg3zpTSPe

— VedaPrime (@VedaPrime) December 25, 2020

Also, @VedaPrime suggested that the car was sent to the US factory for quality control and this is the most reasonable explanation. The weather conditions in China allow the car to carry out all road tests, so sending it to the US for tests seems unlikely. At the same time, the factory in Fremont has been producing Model Y for nine months, so it can carry out good quality control of the vehicle assembly at Giga Shanghai.

In December, we already saw several dozen Chinese-made Model Ys parked under protective cover in the Giga Shanghai parking lot. According to Tesmanian sources, they were sent to stores as exhibition pieces. Mass production is due to start in early 2021, so quality control is very relevant now.

© 2020, Eva Fox. All rights reserved.

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Article edited by @SmokeyShorts, you can follow him on Twitter

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