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Tesla Delivers First Chinese-Made Model 3 to Customers

Associated Press

   BEIJING - Tesla's Shanghai factory delivered its first cars to
   customers Monday and chief executive Elon Musk said the electric
   automaker plans to set up a design center in China to create a model
   for worldwide sales.

   Musk presided at a ceremony where a half-dozen buyers wearing red Tesla
   T-shirts drove away new Model 3 sedans. He expressed thanks to earlier
   customers who he said made Tesla's expansion in China possible by
   purchasing imported models from the fledgling brand.

   Tesla Inc. built the Gigafactory 3, its first outside the United
   States, following the ruling Communist Party's 2018 decision to allow
   full foreign ownership in electric car manufacturing. It is due to
   produce the Model 3 and a planned SUV, the Model Y.

   Producing in China insulates Tesla from possible duty increases on
   imported U.S.-made vehicles from Beijing's tariff war with Washington.
   Other foreign automakers including General Motors Co., Volkswagen AG
   and Toyota Motor Co. have long had joint venture factories in China.

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