Tesla to deliver first Chinese-built Model 3 cars on Monday

As Tesla’s shares continued their year-long surge, rising to another all-time high of $435.31 on Friday, the electric carmaker is about to make the first deliveries of Model 3 sedans built at its new Gigafactory production facility in Shanghai. According to a report from Bloomberg, the first Model 3 deliveries will go out to Tesla employees in China on Monday.

Tesla did not immediately return a request for comment on its Chinese car-production efforts.

The news marks a milestone for Tesla. The company broke ground on its Shanghai Gigafactory in January, and began rolling the first cars off the facility’s assembly line in October. Tesla has made China a major target for its international growth efforts, with Chief Executive Elon Musk saying the company should be producing 1,000 cars a week at the Shanghai plant by the end of 2019, and that at its peak, the facility will be capable of building up to 500,000 cars a year.

Tesla received the additional good news Friday that China has included the Model 3 on a list of items that won’t be subjected to a 10% tax on purchases made within the country. The Chinesebuilt Model 3 is expected to come with a base sticker price equal to $50,000, but Tesla is said to be considering cutting the car’s price by as much as 20% next year as it becomes capable of lowering production costs and uses more components from Chinese suppliers.

The latest updates on Tesla’s Model 3 efforts in China come one day after the company said that it has secured the equivalent of $1.29 billion in loans from Chinese banks in order to help fund expansion and production at the Shanghai Gigafactory, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.