Tesla delivers first cars in Beijing
Print Edition
MORE than half a year since it began accepting orders from China, American electric carmaker Tesla made its first deliveries in Beijing yesterday.
Eight Chinese consumers, all business elites and mostly from the IT industry, received the key to their Model S from Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla, who will attend another car handover ceremony in Shanghai today.
Though often counted on to refuel China’s struggling new-energy industry, the high-profile Silicon startup didn’t quite electrify the market yesterday, with a recent consumer protest exposing a huge obstacle in the company’s path to making further inroads in the world’s largest auto market — a dearth of charging infrastructure.
On Sunday, 23 customers who have booked Tesla cars, with a basic model costing 734,000 yuan (US$118,000), held a public demonstration at the venue of the Beijing auto show, urging Tesla to respond to the delivery delays caused by what the company called “charging considerations.”
The disgruntled customers were from cities outside Beijing and Shanghai, the only two places in China with charging infrastructure that meets the company’s requirements for electric car usage.
In an exclusive interview with Caixin, Musk offered a personal apology to those customers but said the company has to postpone car deliveries for another few months to ensure they have “a good product experience.”
Developing a charging facility network in China often involves complex negotiations with the state grid, which has frustrated many carmakers. Musk said Tesla will be investing heavily in developing its own supercharger network in the country that can run on solar power and independent of the state grid.
At yesterday’s ceremony, Musk demonstrated the first usage of the company’s supercharger on a Chinese customer’s car. Working at 135KW, it is capable of charging for a 200-kilometer drive within just 20 minutes.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
