The US electric vehicle maker Tesla is planning to offer Made in China Model 3 Long Range RWD variant in China. The company is currently waiting for approval from the Chinese government, according to a recently discovered document. The variant in question would provide a longer driving range as revealed by a source familiar about the matter.
Model 3 Long Range RWD
The Tesla document found at the China Ministry of Industry was first spotted by Tesla insider Jason Man. It can be recalled that the Tesla Model 3 Long Range RWD was introduced as a vehicle with a longer range battery pack and rear-wheel-drive setup. The company later discontinued the variant since it started to offer AWD or dual-motor all-wheel drive with a longer range battery.
It appears that the US electric vehicle maker is now reintroducing the variant in China. The MIIT documents discovered by Reuters reveal that the Tesla Model 3 Long Range RWD has a curb weight of 1,745 kg, which is a little heavier than the discontinued US version. It comes with a 2020 kW electric motor and a top speed of 140 mph.
Tesla MIC Model 3
At present, the Tesla Made in China Model 3 has a driving range of 445 kilometers. The company also sells the imported version of Model 3 with longer driving ranges of 590 and 595 kilometers in the region. The Tesla Model 3 Long Range RWD is anticipated to have a similar or maybe longer driving range than its US counterpart.
The Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai started deliveries of Tesla MIC Model 3 in Dec. 2019. Operations at the $2 billion facility in China restarted this week after an extended holiday because of the measure implemented by the Chinese government to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Since the downtime, the US electric vehicle might miss the production goals it had set earlier.
Based on the documents submitted by the US electric vehicle maker in SEC, China is still its second-largest consumer market last year. Tesla generated around $3 billion in revenue in the Asian region. This is an increase of 69.55 percent from its revenue of $1.76 billion in 2018.
Tesla also said that manufacturing cars in China is vital to its sales strategy and expansion. The Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai has an annual production capacity of around 150,000 Made in Chine Model 3 vehicles. The US electric vehicle maker is also planning to open its Gigafactory 4 in Berlin late this year or in 2021.
