After only about a year since the groundbreaking ceremony for Tesla’s Chinese Gigafactory 3, the factory is already able to produce 1,000 Model 3s a week and was able to host a delivery event for the first Chinese-made Model 3s. It was the perfect way to start off the year as many were skeptical that the factory would be able to produce cars within a year of starting construction. But Tesla found a way, and Elon Musk decided to make the event even more interesting with musings of making yet another car.
Musk was in high spirits at the delivery event, throwing caution to the wind and deciding to bust out some dance moves that might be too extreme for some of you to handle.
At Tesla Giga Shanghai NSFW!! pic.twitter.com/1yrPyzJQGZ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2020
Along with personally delivering the keys to the first 10 non-Tesla employees to own Chinese-made Model 3s, Musk made a few comments aside from the usual speeches thanking all the employees and everyone that was involved with the project.
The first of which is unsurprising as he announced their intention to invest in having the Model 3 and Model Y produced in China:
“We intend to continue making a significant investment and increasing the investment in China, making the Model 3 and the Model Y and future models also in China,”
However, an even more interesting announcement was made by Musk, because of course, how could we ever have an event where Elon Musk doesn’t decide to say something out of left field.
“Something that would be super cool … So we’re going to do it … is to try to create a China design and engineering center to actually design an original car in China for worldwide consumption. I think this will be very exciting,”
Was this an announcement made while riding the highs of Serotonin release due to the company’s current success, or was this actually planned out well in advance? Given Tesla has yet to finish Gigafactory 3 and has to start production of Gigafactory 4 and Model Y (and presumably the Semi) as well, I have to wonder how much resources Tesla has to commit to yet another car.
Currently, Tesla’s model range all occupy their specific segments with limited competition between models. Currently, there is not really a whole in Tesla’s lineup unless they plan to build some sort of minivan or cargo van which I find highly doubtful. With the upcoming Model Y size putting it just above the Model 3, it is also possible that Tesla could be going for an even smaller car that might end up being cheaper than the Model 3. At this point, we have to wait and see.
You can watch the whole live stream below:
What do you guys think of the announcement? What kind of car do you think will be designed? Let us know down in the comments below.
Source: CNBC
