Tesla Model 3 Production Could Start In China This Year, Model Y In 2020 — UPDATED

7 years Zachary Shahan 0 Comments
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Update: New tweets and videos added to the top and bottom of this article and will be added continuously as they come in.

I don’t recall if Elon Musk said this before or if I’ve just had the hunch for months — I think the latter — but another piece of breaking news this evening is that Tesla is aiming to start Model 3 production in China by the end of the year.

Given the pace of Tesla Gigafactory 3 development since the middle of last year, it has seemed likely that Tesla was targeting a 2019 production kickoff in Shanghai.

As always, the production would ramp up slowly. (You have to work out the kinks and move forward one alien dreadnought step at a time.) So, Elon doesn’t anticipate high-volume production will start until 2020. Nonetheless, that’s as quick as reasonable Tesla bulls could dream, and approximately 1,000 years sooner than Tesla shorts and critics expected.

With Tesla making yet another big step forward and busting another milestone armchair Tesla trolls have claimed would never happen, one might think the critics would step off the accelerator and the naysayers would start saying “yay!”

Haha — that will be the day!

There are still so many talking points people who would like to see Tesla fail are clinging to, and those people and talking points do influence innocent bystanders — millions of them. The common person on the street hears much more of the stuff you find in our #Pravduh series than you read here on CleanTechnica.

Even someone like Jim Cramer of CNBC and The Street, who is supposed to be following this stuff closely and understand the company well, doesn’t apparently collect the full story day after day. He occasionally has good takes on Tesla, but a tweet this evening implies that he doesn’t understand Tesla’s geographical gigafactory strategy or the basics of auto manufacturing. Luckily, Elon was online to quickly tweet a simple explanation to the manufactured issue:

Cramer will hopefully convey the story well to his millions of viewers in 2019. If not, we will do our best to correct the record with our communications to millions readers.

Back to Gigafactory 3, one big question remains. When will Model Y production begin?

Previously, Elon noted that Gigafactory 3 would initially produce the Tesla Model Y and Model 3. It has also been stated recently that the Model Y is essentially ready for production. Naturally, though, with too much demand for the Model 3 at the moment, there’s no point in rushing the Model Y out the door. And Tesla is still increasing production capacity in the US. Additionally, it is surely simpler for Tesla to ramp up production of one vehicle at a time at any factory.

Update: The Model Y will go into production in 2020, according to Elon’s statements at the groundbreaking ceremony today.

Related: Video: Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai Construction Moving Forward

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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 electric vehicles and renewable energy at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao.

Zachary Shahan has 9050 posts and counting. See all posts by Zachary Shahan