The first shipment of Tesla Model S and Model X cars from California have arrived in China, signaling the start of customer deliveries is just around the corner. There have been no deliveries of Tesla’s flagship vehicles in China since late 2020 when the automaker stopped the production lines in Fremont to update them with a refresh design.
This week a total of 867 Model S and Model X vehicles arrived at China’s Tianjin Port, several hours north of Shanghai. According to Twitter user @Tslachan, who shared some photos of the cars lined up at the port, deliveries to customers should begin in late March or early April.
The lead up to the restart of deliveries in China has been months in the making. The first sign that they were on the horizon came last October when the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) approved the Model S and Model X for a purchase tax exemption in China.
The vehicles were still without a price on the Design Studio however, but that changed in January when Tesla announced the new pricing in a post on the company’s official Weibo account. At that time the automaker said the first deliveries would being in Q2 2023, and they look to be right on schedule.
The Model S Long Range (LR) starts at ¥789,900 (~$156,200 CAD), while the Model S Plaid starts at ¥1,009,900 (~$199,700 CAD). Meanwhile the Model X LR starts at ¥879,900 (~$174,000) and the Plaid variant of the electric SUV starts at ¥1,039,900 (~$205,600 CAD).
