Tesla starts made-in-China Model 3 deliveries — opens the floodgates

Tesla has officially started made-in-China Model 3 deliveries and delivered the first 15 units — opening the floodgates.

As announced last week, Tesla held a ceremony for the first made-in-China Model 3 deliveries today in Shanghai.

It’s an important milestone for Tesla since they are the first cars delivered that were produced at Gigafactory 3, which is now officially Tesla’s second vehicle-producing factory.

Tesla China employees took delivery of the first few units at a special event today.

The automaker released a few pictures of the event on its Chinese social media accounts (images via Tesla on Weibo):

The event was particularly special for two people who not only took delivery of one of the first made-in-China Model 3 cars, but also got engaged.

Tesla released a few pictures of the moment too:

Tesla wrote issued a statement about the event (translated from Chinese):

This is a happy party for Tesla and today Model 3 cars were delivered to our lovely employees in order to give back to everyone for their hard work over the past year. It is because of their efforts that Tesla has moved forward!

Here are a few more employees who took delivery today:

Tesla delivered only 15 cars during the ceremony, but it is now expected to start the normal deliveries in high volume.

As we previously reported, Tesla has been steadily producing and shipping made-in-China Model 3 vehicles out of Gigafactory 3 while it was awaiting sale approval for the new vehicle.

We believe that hundreds of vehicles are already at delivery centers across the country, and Tesla is going to attempt to deliver them by the end of the year.

More deliveries are also expected in Shanghai as Model 3 cars were overflowing in the Gigafactory 3 parking lot as of the latest drone video posted last week.

CEO Elon Musk said that delivering all vehicles in inventory is one of the two top “critical priorities” for Tesla’s end of the year.