Tesla to deliver Model 3 to China buyers in March

BEIJING: Tesla Inc said on Friday it plans to start delivering Model 3 cars to customers in China in March, cementing a time frame that the US electric vehicle (EV) maker’s chief executive, Elon Musk, tweeted about late last year. The California-based firm, which aims to accelerate Chinese sales that have been hit hard by the impact of trade tension between Washington and Beijing, said in a statement the starting price for a Model 3 in China would be 499,000 yuan ($72,000). Tesla cut prices for its Model 3 last month, the third time in the last two months for the firm to adjust prices in China. In November, Tesla cut the prices of its Model X and Model S in China by 12 to 26 per cent. Tesla has opened a tender process to build a $2 billion plant in Shanghai — dubbed a Gigafactory — and at least one contractor has started buying materials, Reuters reported earlier last month. — Reuters