A large batch of Tesla vehicles destined for Canada were spotted over the weekend at a port in Shanghai, China. This shipment will be the fourth to be sent to Canada after Tesla altered their logistics to export vehicles built at Giga Shanghai to Canada for the first time.
It was back in April when we first learned Tesla would be sending cars from China to Canada when the automaker introduced the new Model Y Rear-Wheel Drive (RWD) variant. Even though Tesla didn’t officially announce it was built at Giga Shanghai, we suspected it would be because it was equipped with lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries.
Not long after that we also learned based on changes to the Design Studio that Tesla was also going to be exporting other Model 3 and Model Y variants from China into Canada. The first shipment of vehicles arrived in Canada in May, with the first deliveries of made-in-China cars taken place late last month. Since then the automaker has sent two more ships to Canada, and now another is about to set sail packed with newly built cars. The new cars were spotted in a drone flyover of the Shanghai South Port on June 15, 2023. According to drone pilot and Tesla China enthusiast Wu Wa, a batch of the cars parked at the port were marked with a CA logo.
The drone pilot also notes now that Tesla is exporting to Canada, the company seems to have shifted its production and export patterns in China. Previously Giga Shanghai focused its efforts in the first half of a quarter on exports, with the second half dedicated to domestic deliveries. Now it appears as though Tesla is exporting during the entire quarter with no focus on the earlier part of the period.
With the ship being loaded now, these vehicles likely won’t arrive in Canada until mid-July, putting the start of deliveries of this batch of vehicles to west coast customers late July or early August, and for locations further east around mid-August.
You can watch the full drone flyover below.
