Tesla exports made-in-China Model 3 sedans to Europe

NEW DELHI: US electric car major Tesla has started exporting its made in China Model 3 cars to Europe for the first time, as the maiden batch of 7,000 sedans departed from Shanghai by the sea.

Elon Musk, the CEO of California-headquartered company, had laid the foundation last year to set up $7-billion plant in Shanghai, becoming the first to benefit from the new policy allowing foreign carmakers to set up whollyowned subsidiaries in China.

The new plant, Tesla's first outside the US, is located in Lingang area, a high-end manufacturing park in the southeast harbour of Shanghai. It is designed with an annual capacity of 500,000 electric cars. China is currently promoting huge investments in manufacturing of electric cars in the country.

The cars made by Tesla's Shanghai gigafactory are expected to arrive at the port of Zeebrugge in Belgium at the end of November, before being sold in European countries.