It would appear that Tesla plans on exporting Model 3 EVs built at the carmaker’s Shanghai plant to markets such as Europe, according to people familiar with the matter.
Those individuals claim that these China-built Model 3s will enter production in Q4 of this year, and that their target markets include not just Europe, but also Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. Shipments could start either by the end of 2020 or in early 2021.
A spokesperson for Tesla in China declined to comment on this report, as per Autonews Europe.
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Tesla also wants to ramp up production in China as competition in the space intensifies – local rivals BYD already have a strong footing in the world’s largest car market. As for Europe, where EV sales have more than doubled between January to July of this year (compared to 2019), Tesla will face major competition from the VW Group, Renault and the PSA Group.
The EV-maker is of course also building a factory near Berlin, in Germany, with Elon Musk targeting a mid-2021 production start, which is highly ambitious.
In China, Tesla currently moves around 11,000 units per month, all domestically. By comparison, rivals such as NIO are averaging just 3,500 cars.
Meanwhile, markets such as Singapore, Australia and New Zealand have trailed both Europe and China in EV adoption, and should present a larger challenge for Tesla, who might need to make some changes to its assembly line in Shanghai in order to target these right-hand drive countries.
