Tesla is shipping another batch of vehicles from China to North America as a second ship packed with all-electric cars built at Gigafactory Shanghai is on its way to Canada.
It is a move that further solidifies Tesla’s strategy to send vehicles from Shanghai to the North American market, and it may be indicative of further shipments from China to Canada.
In late April, Reuters reported that Shanghai-built Tesla units would make their way to Canada, a switch up from CEO Elon Musk’s response to parallel rumors last year. Musk, when hearing about the initial reports last November, said it was “false” in a Tweeted response.
However, the April reports were proven to be accurate as both Model 3 and Model Y vehicles made their way to a port in Washington State on May 1.
Tesla Model 3 appears to join Model Y in export from China to Canada
Logistics records showed the vehicles came from a port in Shanghai, and images shared by ship tracker Morten Lund revealed both all-electric mass-market Tesla cars were present.
Now, Lund has confirmed that a second ship carrying Tesla vehicles has left Shanghai and is on its way to Canada, packed with vehicles that were built at the Chinese factory.
*BREAKING*
A 2nd CANADIAN🇨🇦 Tesla-Ship is en route to Canada with MIC Teslas from Giga Shanghai.Follow it & other Tesla-Ships here:https://t.co/yg0ykmZcCN pic.twitter.com/WNCLVVK34K
— Morten Grove – Captain of all Tesla-Ships 🚢 (@mortenlund89) May 22, 2023
The reasons for Tesla shipping these vehicles from China to Canada ultimately catalyzes plenty of room for speculation, but it is likely that the tax credit rules from the Inflation Reduction Act have a lot to do with it.
Tesla is likely keeping U.S.-produced vehicles within the border and selling them to U.S.-based customers to take advantage of the tax credits that make the cars more affordable.
U.S.-produced EVs receive an additional bit of money off through tax credits, which means Tesla is prone to ship vehicles from China to Canada to handle demand there.
Canada also has a $5,000 incentive through the iZEV program, and it does not favor local production for consumers to receive it. Instead, it is given to any person who buys an EV, regardless of where it is built.
A second ship heading to Canada from China seems to indicate Tesla is planning to use this strategy more often.
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