Tesla recently held an event in Beijing to mark the official delivery of the first Model X to the Asia-Pacific region. The regional launch event at the historic Diaoyutai State Guesthouse saw the attendance of around 400 people.
The Diaoyutai State Guesthouse is a hotel and garden retreat in the western suburbs of the Chinese capital that’s often used as a hosting venue for foreign government officials, and other “important” people.
Despite our earlier reports on the possible delay of Model X deliveries to the region, it appears that things are roughly on track. Tesla’s Vice President of Asia Pacific, Robin Ren, was quoted by the China Daily as saying that the company is actually more than 6 months ahead of schedule, and that first deliveries are expected by the end of the month.
“Stimulated by the impressive number of orders of Model 3, we are now making a new capacity plan,” Ren stated.
“Tesla first announced back in February of this year that it would begin taking orders for the flashy Model X, just ahead of the country’s national Chinese new year holiday. Deliveries were not anticipated until the first quarter of 2017 though early sightings of the Model X seen at the Beijing air cargo terminal led some to believe that more of the electric crossover might be headed into the country, albeit the one spotted was presumably Tesla’s display car for the Beijing Auto China show,” Teslarati states.
“China has become Tesla’s second largest market after the US, and has seen more than a 300% growth rate over the past year.”
It’s still not exactly clear what the delivery schedule for the region will be like. Will those who placed an order months ago get theirs relatively soon? Is the region being prioritized?