Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai enters construction spurt

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On October 17, a 220KV substation officially started transporting electricity to Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai, marking the spurt period before the long-waited plant's initial activation, according to Xinhua.

With electric duct banks spanning 16.7km and 220KV cables stretching 55km in total, the 220KV substation is able to satisfy the electrify capacity of 40,000 kVA required for the preliminary stage and will reach the total designed electricity demand of 320,000 kVA in the future, said Xinhua.

Reportedly, it took only 168 workdays for Tesla to fulfill the whole process from applying for the supporting facility to kicking off the electricity transmission, the fastest one to date among the similar-scale power supply supporting projects in Shanghai.

At the same time, the products to be offered by Tesla's Shanghai plant have been certified by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The ministry on October 17 posted the names of vehicle manufacturers to be newly added into the Announcement on On-road Vehicle Manufacturers and Products, of which Tesla (Shanghai) Co.,Ltd was included. It indicates that the future Shanghai-built Tesla models will enjoy NEV subsidy as same as other locally-produced products.

As part of incentives to Tesla's upcoming development in China, Chinese government has exempted Tesla's EVs from its vehicle purchase tax.

Its entire lineup for Chinese market—a total of 16 variants covering the Model S, X and 3—has been listed on the Catalogue of NEV Models Exempt from Vehicle Purchase Tax (26th Batch) released by the MIIT.

The exemption from a 10% vehicle purchase tax would lower the cost of buying a Tesla EV by up to roughly RMB99,000, the U.S.-based startup said via its WeChat account immediately after the ministry's announcement was released.