Tesla plans to ship Model 3s made at its Shanghai Gigafactory to other markets in Asia and Europe, Bloomberg reported Friday citing people familiar with the matter.
The cars intended for delivery outside the country will likely start mass production in the fourth quarter, the people said, adding the markets targeted include Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, as well as Europe, where customers currently have to wait for a Tesla to be delivered from the US.
Shipments could start as soon as the end of this year, or early 2021, according to the people.
Tesla is stepping up production as competition in the space intensifies, with traditional automakers starting to make EVs.
Tesla's main factory is in Fremont, California, where it assembles the Model S, Model X, Model Y and Model 3. The company is also building a factory in Berlin, its first in Europe. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk is pursuing an ambitious timetable, targeting mid-2021 for that plant to start production.
Chinese EV maker Nio also plans to enter overseas markets including Europe. I recently raised $1.7 billion in capital markets. In addition to buying back a portion of Nio China stake, the funds raised will be used for high-level driverless systems and overseas market expansion.
"We're hoping to be able to start initial trials in countries where EVs are more popular in the second half of next year." After giving a relatively vague timeline for the launch of the BaaS business on August 20 and speaking to the media, William Li Bin made it clear that "2022 will be the start of broader market entry, and 2023 and 2024 more fully."
What William Li Bin calls "the more popular countries for electric cars" speaks for itself. Data show that from January to July this year, by the influence of subsidy policy, the cumulative number of electric vehicle registrations in Europe has reached 500,000 (including plug-in), surpassing China's 486,000 units, becoming the world's largest new energy vehicle market.
This may mean that Europe will be the first stop of Nio's overseas market.
Europe's new energy vehicle market is expected to perform well by 2020, and has recently gained momentum to become the world's largest new energy vehicle market.
As China's new energy vehicle subsidies continue to recede, it will be difficult for new energy vehicle sales to resume their rapid growth in the short term.