Tesla made a big splash on the first day of 2021 announcing deliveries of the made-in-China (MIC) Model Y will begin this month. Along with that announcement, Tesla also revealed it will be priced cheaper than in North America, and come with more features like a new interior design, heated steering wheel, and Bioweapon Defense Mode.
As expected, demand of the Model Y in China is very high. The rush of traffic to Tesla China’s website caused enough of a slowdown that the automaker took to social media to ask customers to be patient as they navigated the website.
“Currently there are too many orders on the official website and may not be refreshed. Please be patient”
As the note mentioned, it appears the high traffic wasn’t just from people checking it out, but from customers placing orders for the electric SUV. According to sources who spoke to Tesmanian, the number of orders skyrocketed to over 100,000 within the first 10 hours after the announcement.
To further boost sales, Tesla in China is also offering a very attractive trade-in offer for existing Tesla owners. The biggest perk of the package is the option to purchase Full Self-Driving (FSD) for half price if their existing Tesla has Enhanced Autopilot (EAP) or FSD.
With the announcement it is clear Tesla is going to sell every single MIC Model Y they can make in 2021. Based on earlier reports, the automaker is targeting 550K vehicles produced out of Giga Shanghai in 2021, with 250K of those being Model Y’s.
