Elon Musk is intoxicated by China's speed

At the domestic Model 3 delivery ceremony held at Tesla's Shanghai Super Factory, Musk was so excited that people once thought he had drunk 2 kilograms of liquor before the press conference. In fact, what really excited Musk was not the alcohol, but the incredible "Chinese speed".

“I would like to thank the Chinese government, and especially Shanghai for its support. Without your support, we would not have achieved what we have today.”

It may be hard for you to imagine that such a "red and professional" opening would come from Musk's mouth.

That’s right, it’s the “real-life Iron Man” Elon Musk who builds rockets, launches satellites, and claims to migrate to Mars within 20 years.

At the domestic Model 3 delivery ceremony held at Tesla's Shanghai Super Factory, Musk was so excited that people once thought he had drunk 2 kilograms of white wine before the press conference.

In fact, what really excites Musk is not the wine, but the incredible "Chinese speed".

On January 7, 2019, Tesla Shanghai Super Factory laid the foundation stone

On August 19, 2019, the first acceptance permit was obtained

Acceptance passed on September 19, 2019

On October 23, 2019, the company obtained production qualification and started production of Model 3

On December 30, 2019, China-made Model 3 delivered to employees

On January 7, 2020, large-scale delivery of domestically produced Model 3 began

In just one year, a piece of wasteland in Lingang, Shanghai was transformed into a modern automobile production plant that can produce 3,000 Model 3 vehicles per week. The first batch of domestically produced Model 3 was mass-produced and delivered, and the domestic production project of the second model, Model Y, was launched.

Apart from China, which is known as the "infrastructure maniac", there is probably no other country in the world that can help Tesla achieve such a feat.

Tesla Shanghai Super Factory

"Produced in the same year, put into production in the same year, and delivered in the same year" - Tesla really did it!

No wonder Musk's voice was choked up. He said sincerely: "Without your support, there would be no Tesla Shanghai factory today. Together we have created the amazing Shanghai speed and a new record in global automobile manufacturing."

However, as the saying goes, "some are happy while others are sad". Some people are excited to hold the keys of their new car, while others are unable to sleep all night with a lot of worries in their hearts...

Needless to say, the happiest person yesterday was definitely Musk himself, as can be seen from the speed at which he rushed to China.

It is said that in the early morning of January 7, Musk took off from Los Angeles on his private jet Gulfstream G650 and met an Eastern Airlines Boeing 777 passenger plane on the same route.

At the beginning, Musk's G650 took off later, so it followed closely behind.

However, because Musk's private jet was flying at a higher altitude and at full power, it soon surpassed the Boeing 777 and finally arrived in Shanghai first.

In response to this, the official Weibo account of China Eastern Airlines also made a joke and replied: You are worthy of being a rocket maker, I admire you.

Musk was in an even better mood when he arrived at the press conference. He started dancing to his soul. After twisting his body a few times, he seemed to be a little intoxicated and simply took off his coat.

Musk's soul dance steps that you have to watch

The audience screamed continuously, and many female fans expressed their love loudly! (There is no way, being handsome, smart, and rich is popular~)

At a previous delivery ceremony for employees, Tesla revealed that the Shanghai factory can currently produce 28 units per hour, with a working time of 10 hours a day. The current weekly output exceeds 1,000 units, and is expected to reach 3,000 units/week in the future.

The first phase production capacity is 250,000 vehicles/year, and the total production capacity target is 500,000 vehicles/year.

The Shanghai Municipal Government was equally happy as Musk.

You know, Tesla's Gigafactory is the largest foreign-funded manufacturing project in Shanghai's history.

Relevant responsible officials said that Tesla will effectively promote the development of Shanghai's high-end manufacturing industry, accelerate the construction of a world-class automobile industry center, provide strong support for Shanghai's progress towards becoming an outstanding global city, and achieve win-win cooperation.

Elon Musk (left), Wu Qing, member of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal Committee and Deputy Mayor of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government (right)

Attention, it's world class!

At this point, GM's second global power battery factory in Jinqiao, Volkswagen's electric vehicle factory in Anting and Tesla's Lingang Gigafactory together form Shanghai's future electric vehicle industry layout.

More importantly, China's powerful supply chain network will also benefit, and may even lead to the rise of a large number of supplier giants.

This situation is a bit like the significance of Apple mobile phones to China's consumer electronics industry chain.

Foxconn, the famous iPhone OEM; BOE and Shenzhen Tianma, the panel manufacturers; OFILM, the touch screen manufacturer; Xinwei Communication, the RF antenna manufacturer; AAC Technologies and Goertek, the acoustic device manufacturers, etc., all of them are "eating" Apple while becoming global leaders in their respective segments.

Later, the rapid development of Huawei, Xiaomi, and OPPO was also inseparable from the complete supply chain established in my country under the leadership of Apple.

Looking back, my country's new energy industry chain is already quite mature. When meeting with Musk, the Prime Minister also made it clear that Tesla is not only responsible for producing electric vehicles to meet consumer demand, but also for truly taking root in China and becoming a new benchmark for China's opening up in the new era.

The significance of this factory to China's electric vehicle industry may be like the significance of the 1984 Shanghai Volkswagen Santana production line to China in the era of fuel vehicles.

However, some old Tesla owners are not happy about such a significant event.

Previously, Tesla officially announced a price reduction for the domestically produced Model 3 on January 3, with the price dropping to less than 300,000 yuan after subsidies. This move to stimulate the consumer market also stimulated some old car owners.

Recently, some car owners came to Tesla’s direct store and held up banners to “protect their rights.”

From the photos of the scene circulating on the Internet, we can see that a car owner even bought a bag of leeks as a gift to the salesperson at the Tesla store.

A car owner said that Tesla took advantage of the information asymmetry with consumers and concealed the actual delivery time of the domestically produced Model 3 in the past few months. It also induced consumers to buy the imported standard-range model priced at 364,000 yuan with reasons such as "the quality of domestic parts is not as good as imported ones" and "the price of imported models will increase during the Sino-US trade war" in order to clear inventory.

Musk himself certainly knows that these people are unhappy, so at the press conference, in addition to thanking the Chinese government, he also thanked the car owners who had previously purchased Model 3 at a higher price and supported Tesla.

"I'm sorry that I can't let everyone buy cheap electric cars, but it is with the support of these loyal Tesla fans that Tesla can achieve mass production and delivery of the domestically produced Model 3 today."

emmmm... I think those old car owners will be even more unhappy when they see this thank-you message.

It is reported that some consumers have already started negotiations with the store to communicate their demands.

What’s funny is that when the two sides were negotiating, the leeks were still on the table.

Compared with the old car owners, those who are even more uneasy are the new Chinese new energy car manufacturers represented by NIO.

In the global market, Tesla produced a total of 104,891 electric vehicles and delivered 112,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019, achieving a 50% increase.

NIO, the representative of the Chinese team, delivered 8,224 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2019. Although it achieved a good result of 71.4% month-on-month growth, the gap with the foreign challenger is still not small.

What’s even more frightening is that by the end of 2020, all parts of Tesla’s domestically produced Model 3 will be localized.

Currently, the localization rate of parts at Tesla's Shanghai Super Factory is around 30%, and it is planned to increase to 70%-80% by July 2020, and achieve full domestic substitution by the end of the year.

This means that Tesla's localization process will continue to accelerate. As the localization rate of its parts increases and the benefits of scale are enhanced, Tesla's terminal sales price may continue to fall.

As Tesla's prices continue to fall, companies such as Xpeng Motors and WM Motors are also facing severe tests.

This time, it wasn’t a catfish that got into the pond, but a wolf!

Finally, I have to mention a person who I don’t know whether I should be happy about or not, and that is Jia Yueting, the founder of Faraday Future.

At the CES 2020 event held in recent days, Faraday Future FF91 made a surprise appearance.

It is reported that FF91 is positioned as a luxury car, with a price of 2 million yuan and 200,000 US dollars in China and the United States respectively.

Emmmm... At this price, isn't Porsche a good choice?