Both models are eligible for a C$,000 federal incentive in Canada.

(Screenshot of Tesla Canada website.)

$Tesla (TSLA.US)$ is listing China-made Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles (EVs) for sale in Canada, confirming that it has completed its first shipments to North America from its Shanghai plant, according to a Reuters report today.

The rear-wheel drive Model Y and the long-range all-wheel drive version of the Model 3 are available for immediate delivery in British Columbia, with codes indicating they were built at Giga Shanghai, the report said.

Both models are eligible for a C$5,000 ($3,695) federal incentive in Canada, which, unlike the US, does not link EV subsidies to the location of the plant where the cars are built, the report noted.

Tesla and other EV makers have a cost advantage in China, and exports to Canada have opened up a new market for Giga Shanghai, the report said.

(Screenshot of Tesla Canada website.)

The company has designed and tested Model Y cars for export to North America and aims to produce nearly 9,000 for export this quarter, the report said, citing a Tesla production plan.

On April 24, Reuters cited people familiar with the matter and a production memo as saying that Tesla had begun production in Shanghai of the Model Y that will be sold in Canada this year.

It will be the first time the company has shipped cars from China to North America, a move that will connect Tesla's largest and most cost-effective factory in the world with its largest market, North America, the report said.

Tesla's Shanghai plant, which makes the Model 3 as well as the Model Y, not only supplies vehicles to local consumers but is also an export center for the EV maker.

Tesla delivered 39,956 vehicles in China in April, and the Shanghai plant exported 35,886, according to data released earlier this month by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

For the full year 2022, Tesla delivered 439,770 vehicles in China, up 37.11 percent from 320,743 vehicles in 2021.

Tesla's Shanghai plant exported 271,095 vehicles in 2022, according to data monitored by CnEVPost.

Tesla's Shanghai plant produced about 727,000 units in 2022, up 49.7 percent from a year earlier, contributing 23 percent of Shanghai's auto manufacturing output, a local official said earlier this month.

($1 = C$1.3530)

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