Hello everyone, I am Model 3, the Tesla that costs 300,000 yuan, and you must have heard of me, as I just crushed BBA in North America.
Today, my price in China was announced, and this time, I may not be able to dominate.
The first Model 3 order in China has a top-of-the-line price of 789,700 yuan.
But it’s okay, my domestic brother, who will be born in 2020 (Elon said 2019, but I don’t believe him), will compete with local BBA.
Regarding this Chinese price announcement, let me introduce myself first:
I was unveiled by Elon Musk at the Fremont factory on April 1, 2016, with a minimum price of $35,000, which was remembered by everyone. At that time, the tariff was about 300,000 yuan, and Elon promised to deliver it in 2018.
For a deposit of $1,000 or €1,000 or ¥8,000, global orders for me continued to rise, with 370,000 orders in just one month.
At the Tesla Q1 earnings call on May 5, 2016, my global order peak had reached 518,000. At that time, Elon Musk announced that the delivery deadline for Model 3 would be moved up to 2017. With your full support, I can handle any pressure!
At that time, Elon Musk had already laid the groundwork for sleeping in the factory a year later.
On July 28, 2017, I arrived on schedule, with 30 Model 3s delivered at the center of Fremont Plaza. Under the gaze of hundreds of thousands of global orders, 30 lucky people completed this grand ceremony.
But the good times didn’t last long. Fremont factory capacity ramped up, and for Elon to have a better sleeping environment, netizens crowdfunded sofas.
The following year, Tesla announced its Q4 2017 earnings, and they only delivered 1,524 Model 3s in the entire quarter.I fell like a fallen superstar, being questioned by the outside world like an out-of-date Internet celebrity.
“Tesla has been losing money year after year. Can Model 3 save Tesla?”
Wall Street tycoons have taken advantage of the bearish market and Elon Musk is still solving the production capacity ramp-up issue with his high-load operation like Iron Man every day except for his 15-minute Twitter attack on the shorts.
In the last week of June 2018, a temporary tent was set up in the Fremont factory to expand the production line with the determination of a drastic measure to sprint for Model 3’s production capacity.
On July 1st, 2018, Elon Musk long sighed on Twitter: “7000 cars, 7 days”, among which the weekly production capacity of Model 3 was approaching 5000.
Moving forward all the way.
On July 17, 2018, a chart shows it all. Model 3’s delivery volume in the United States exceeded the sum of BMW, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, and Lexus’s same-level models.
Elon Musk also visited China in July and confirmed the construction of the factory in Lingang, Shanghai. He was also caught by netizens eating “Zhen Ding Ji” and “Jian Bing Guo Zi,” which made him very happy.
In September 2018, Model 3’s delivery volume in the United States far exceeded that of major luxury brands, which is amazing for the delivery volume of small to medium-sized cars.
On October 13th, 2018, the 100,000th Model 3 rolled off the assembly line.
On November 16th, 2018, today, Tesla China sent configurable email to reservation holders and invited them to pay the second installment, which means the Model 3 orders in China will soon enter production and be shipped to Shanghai, Tianjin, and Guangzhou.
This is my story. I didn’t expect the automotive industry of this century would still have such an exciting product.
Configuration in China
The import duty of Model 3 was initially 25% and dropped briefly to 15%, but now it is 40% due to the trade war.
The 300,000 yuan Tesla was not delivered as promised. Only the “Performance” and “Long Range” versions with sufficient production capacity are available in China, priced at RMB 588,000 and RMB 698,000 respectively, which can be understood as the high-end and second-highest-end Model 3 models.
In addition, there are “Mid Range” and “Standard Range” versions. Judging from the current import duty, the expected price range is only around RMB 400,000. It’s worth noting that the “Mid Range” version has already been delivered in the US in small quantities, and it should not be long before it is available in China.
Here is a chart for the basic configuration:
Here is another chart for optional configurations:
Here are some pictures to show you the non-public ordering process:
After paying a deposit of RMB 8,000 on the official website, you will receive an email or phone call from Tesla China to confirm your order. After completing the ordering process, you will receive an email with a traditional car purchase agreement that contains bilateral legal effect. You will also confirm the configuration and pay a second deposit of RMB 50,000 to Tesla (China) via bank transfer to start production.
Finally, you will receive a vehicle configuration sheet (as shown below) and be placed in the production queue:
The prices announced include the Chinese prices for Model 3 that positions it to be on the same level as imported BMW 6 series. The minimum price for the long-range version (bare car) is RMB 588,000 and the highest price is RMB 789,700 for the fully equipped high-performance version (as shown in the configuration sheet).
This has made many rational consumers who paid RMB 8,000 to stop buying and wait to see. However, many Tesla fans chose the highest configuration to pre-order, as it represents the highest level of pure electric vehicle in Tesla and even the world, both in terms of battery energy density and electric motor work efficiency.
We do not know what the price of the Model 3 produced in China will be, but that is a thing of the future, two years later. Have you considered paying a certain premium to have the opportunity to own the world’s most powerful pure electric vehicle ahead of time?
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.