BREAKING — First Shanghai-Made Tesla Model 3 Long Range Delivered Today

Wednesday, May, 20, has seen the first Shanghai-made Tesla Model 3 Long Range vehicles delivered to customers, just 6 weeks after the vehicle’s order page was opened up in early April.

The news emerged from Chinese website The Paper. The Shanghai-made Tesla Model 3 Long Range is currently available in rear-wheel drive (RWD), and differs from the import Tesla Model 3s with distinctive Chinese badging (see image above). It has a 202 kW (281 hp) rear motor and a 77 kWh battery — fairly identical specs to the original US Model 3 Long Range RWD variant offered back in 2017–2018, but since discontinued. (Note: four of our writers have that variant and you can see long-term review articles of it here.)

The current price of the Tesla Model 3 Long Range in China starts at 344,000 RMB (around ~$48,000) after subsidies, as per Tesla’s website.

The entry level Shanghai-made Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus is priced from 272,550 RMB (~ $38,000) after subsidies.

In related news, Tesla Shanghai is also on track to lift production volume to 4,000 Model 3s per week as soon as next month (June 2020). Model Y is planned to be ready for production in Shanghai from Q1 2021, Tesla’s Grace Tao Lin told Xinhua in a recent interview:

We estimate to reach 4K unit/week production in Jun, which means that actual production will surpass designed production of GF3 1st phase, Tesla says.
We expect to complete 2nd phase by year end and start Model Y production in 21Q1, co added. pic.twitter.com/s6okVMK2Fh

— Moneyball (@DKurac) May 18, 2020

We’ve seen building expansion continuing at a breakneck pace, mirroring the impressive energy of the phase 1 build in 2019. With this progress, it’s not hard to believe that the Model Y production lines may be ready for some pilot production even before the end of this year, like the Model 3 was in 2019 Q4. Here’s a recent update video on the build progress at the Shanghai site from documentarian Wuwa Vision:

Right now, things are looking good at Tesla Shanghai for 2020, with more than 125,000 vehicle deliveries possible over the full year. Anyone care to place a sporting bet on the final made-in-Shanghai delivery volume for 2020? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Article images courtesy of Tesla