Tesla (TSLA 1.50%) is set to begin shipping made-in-China sedans to Europe on Tuesday, according to a Chinese media report.
Chinese government-backed news outlet The Paper reports on Monday that Tesla will ship about 7,000 Model 3s from its Shanghai factory to a port in Belgium for delivery to customers in countries throughout Europe.
The ship carrying the Teslas will depart on Tuesday and is expected to arrive in late November, according to the report.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
It's the first time that Tesla has exported vehicles from its factory in China. Shanghai's deputy mayor, Chen Yin, who spoke at a ceremony to mark the occasion on Monday, said that Tesla's Shanghai factory, which opened late last year, is now producing between 3,500 and 4,000 Model 3 sedans per week.
The company is in the process of building a second assembly line at the factory for the Model Y crossover SUV, Chen said.
Tesla's China chief, Zhu Xiotong, said that the Model 3s heading to Europe have the same battery life as its standard-specification Chinese-market models. The sedans have passed all of the European-market certification requirements, he said.
Tesla's factory in Shanghai is the first auto factory in China to be built by a global automaker outside of a joint venture with a domestic Chinese automaker. The factory, located in a special "free trade zone" in Shanghai, has become a point of pride for local politicians because of the speed of its construction: It took less than a year for the factory to go from groundbreaking to the start of production.
