Tesla (TSLA) has built a giant new delivery center in Beijing, the largest in China and possibly the world, as it expects big things to come in the important market.
Over the years, Tesla changed its retail strategy quite a few times.
Earlier this summer, we reported on Tesla starting to implement a brand-new retail strategy that will involve closing down stores in high-rent areas and focusing on larger delivery centers.
The automaker will start to employ more remote employees that will manage the sale and delivery experience from a “virtual central store” and direct customers to test drives and deliveries at less expensive but bigger locations.
Some of those locations will only focus on delivering cars that customers bought online through that process.
Tesla has now completed and launched one of, if not its biggest, delivery centers in the world.
It’s an 11,800-square-meter (120,000 square feet) building with over 100 spaces for deliveries in Beijing:
As you can see, the delivery center, which just opened, is already full of Model Y vehicles.
Tesla is opening the new delivery center as it is starting deliveries of a new, cheaper version of the Model Y.
The Model Y Standard Range, which is not available in the US anymore, starts at ¥276,000, or the equivalent of $42,500 USD.
The electric SUV is already popular in the market, but the new price, which is achievable thanks to a ¥15,840 EV incentive because it starts under ¥300,000, is expected to make the Model Y extremely popular in the Chinese market.
With Gigafactory Shanghai turning into an export hub and focusing on exportations during the first half of the quarter, Tesla is expected to have a lot of deliveries to do in China during the next few weeks.
This new delivery center is part of the new infrastructure needed to handle the volume.
Here’s a video that Tesla China released for the opening of the delivery center (hat tip to @JayinShanghai):
Over the last few weeks, CEO Elon Musk has been warning employees that it will be a difficult month for deliveries since vehicle production was delayed early in the quarter.
Tesla’s performance in China is expected to be critical to the company delivering a strong quarter.
Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.