Elon Musk Celebrates Tesla's Milestone In China With Memorable Dance Moves

Tesla CEO Elon Musk pulls off some dance moves during a ceremony at a new multibillion-dollar plant near Shanghai — its first outside the U.S. — where the American company is handing over the first China-made Model 3 sedans to the public.

Musk presided over a ceremony on Tuesday at a new multibillion-dollar plant near Shanghai — its first outside the U.S. — where the American company handed over the first China-made Model 3 sedans to the public, the first one being a white sedan going to a man from the nearby city of Wuxi. Technically, deliveries began last week but those were to employees.

Local production could help Musk build on recent momentum for the company in the country, which is also the world’s largest market for normal gas guzzlers. Tesla is storming into China with prices that aren’t much higher than those local manufacturers such as NIO Inc. and Xpeng Motors, while undercutting global giants such as BMW AG and Daimler AG.

Musk also introduced the Model Y crossover for the Chinese market, saying that demand for the vehicle will probably outstrip that of Tesla’s all other models combined. Other plans include forming a design-and-engineering center in China so that Tesla can eventually develop a brand new car from there, he said.

The Chinese plant, which was completed in record time as it sped through approvals and construction, represents a cornerstone of Musk’s plans to make Tesla a truly global carmaker. The company in November announced plans to build a factory in the middle of Germany’s automotive heartland to cater to burgeoning European demand for EVs.

Musk’s flagship company, named after famed inventor Nikola Tesla who died 77 years ago today, will now need to avoid a repeat of the glitches it experienced in its original car factory in California, where the company went through months of what Musk called “production hell” as it ramped up Model 3 production. After consistently falling well short of the CEO’s ambitious targets, the electric-car maker burned through billions of dollars and came within weeks of running out of money.

Tesla shares have been on a tear since the company reported a surprise quarterly profit in late October. The carmaker is on much steadier footing, having worked out the kinks that limited initial production of the Model 3 and managing to far outpace sales of many other automakers’ electric vehicles in the U.S.

The China plant is already assembling more than 1,000 cars a week, and aims to double that rate over the next year, Song Gang, the manufacturing director at the facility, said on Dec. 30. The company has said it plans to ramp up production to 150,000 Model 3 vehicles a year, of about 3,000 a week, when the first phase of the factory is completed and the company plans to boost production capacity to 500,000 a year after the following phase, although it isn’t clear when exactly Tesla expects to achieve those goals.

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