First Chinese-built Tesla Model 3 electric cars arrive in Australia – report

The first significant batch of Chinese-built Tesla Model 3 electric vehicles has arrived in Australia, according to the online ship-tracker VedaPrime.

While Tesla is yet to confirm the shipment, the well-informed VedaPrime reports approximately 800 examples of the all-electric sedan were dispatched to a storage facility in Wollongong’s Port Kembla on Sunday, direct from the recently completed Shanghai giga-factory.

The Tokyo Car shipping vessel – which is registered in Liberia according to marinetraffic.com – made the delivery.

While the production cost of Chinese-built variants is reportedly substantially lower than that of the US-built counterparts, it remains to be seen if these savings will be passed on to local buyers.

Last week entry-level pricing for the Model 3 dropped in Europe, Asia, and the US, however the RRP in Australia has remained unchanged since October last year.