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The first Tesla Model 3 shipment from China to Europe is on its way

A fleet of Made-in-China Tesla Model 3 cars at the Port of Shanghai waiting to be loaded on the vehicle transport vessel named Toscana by Wallenius Wilhemsen.
A fleet of Made-in-China Tesla Model 3 cars at the Port of Shanghai waiting to be loaded on the vehicle transport vessel named Toscana by Wallenius Wilhemsen.

The rumors of getting Tesla Model 3 electric vehicles getting shipped to Europe from China in addition to the United States have been proven correct. The first shipment of the Made-in-China Tesla Model 3s has been spotted at the Port of Shanghai yesterday and the photos erupted on Twitter.

Some amazing drone photos of a fleet of probably a couple of hundred Chinese Model 3 cars docked at the Port of Shanghai and ready to be loaded on to the vehicle transport vessel were posted by the official Tesla Greater China account on Twitter earlier today.

In one of the photos, the Chinese made Tesla Model 3 EVs were parked in such a manner to form the word TESLA — a display of enthusiasm only seen in China.

Tesla Model 3 cars formation at the Port of Shanghai forming the word Tesla, drone shot taken from a substantial distance. Credits: Tesla Greater China / Twitter.
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The official tweet above from Tesla China says that thousands of Tesla Model 3s manufactured at the Gigafactory Shanghai are ready to move to Europe. This means that Tesla most probably is now going to ship the basic Model 3 Standard Range Plus variant to Europe from Shanghai. The higher trims i.e. the Dual-Motor and Dual-Motor Performance Model 3s will be delivered from the Fremont factory in California, USA.

This strategy by Tesla seems to be already in practice as the most recent sightings of the car carrier trailers leaving the Fremont factory show that they are only carrying the Performance variants of the European spec Model 3s equipped with the new 20″ Uberturbine wheels (see pic below).

Car carrier trailer loaded with 2021 Tesla Model 3 Performance with European license plate holders. Credits: u/ruffells via r/TeslaMotors.

After the Gigafactory Shanghai groundbreaking ceremony, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter that only the lower-end variants of the Model 3 and Model Y will be made in China, the higher-end variants will be imported from the United States. He also said that worldwide deliveries of Tesla vehicles will not be carried out of China.

But looks like Tesla has changed its strategy as the times are changing. With the speedy and quality production by Giga Shanghai, worldwide deliveries of the MiC Tesla Model 3 cars must have become attractive to Tesla.

Since Tesla China is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tesla Inc. (TSLA) headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA — the Chinese government or sponsors don’t control a stake in the company to be able to interfere with the plans or the operations. This means that Tesla China can make its decisions independently and that is great for the Silicon Valley-based automaker’s future.

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By Iqtidar Ali

Iqtidar has been writing about Tesla, Elon Musk, and EVs for more than 3 years on XAutoWorld.com, many of his articles have been republished on CleanTechnica and InsideEVs, maintains a healthy relationship with the Tesla community across the Social Media sphere. You can reach him on Twitter @IqtidarAlii