Late final month, Tesla launched a brand new Mannequin Y variant to its on-line configurator in Canada, the Mannequin Y RWD.

Only some days after that, a Reuters report claimed Tesla is about to begin exporting a Chinese language-made Mannequin Y variant to Canada, which might mark the primary time it ships vehicles from China to North America.

That variant is probably going the LFP battery-powered Mannequin Y RWD, which is made at Tesla’s Shanghai plant alongside the Mannequin 3 RWD. Talking of which, there’s an opportunity Tesla can also begin exporting the LFP-powered electrical sedan to Canada.

Whereas nothing is official, tracker Morten Lund has noticed a Mannequin 3 for export to North America at Shanghai port. He posted a photograph of the automobile on Twitter because it was unloaded from a trailer that additionally had two Mannequin Ys on it.

The left-hand-drive automobile featured a North America-specific license plate bracket on the again and was unloaded in an space the place a ship headed for Tacoma, Washington was ready. Tacoma is 175 miles south of Vancouver, British Columbia.

In fact, that is simply hypothesis for the second, however there may be one thing to it. Tesla has determined to export China-made Mannequin Y RWD automobiles to Canada as a result of they’re eligible for subsidies there, and the cheaper Mannequin 3 RWD would doubtless qualify for incentives too within the North American nation.

A few of the commenters doubted that the picture is latest as a result of the automobiles unloaded from haulers seem to have chrome trim and handles, which Tesla phased out some time in the past. Lund claims the picture is latest and says that is protecting tape and never chrome.

Whereas Tesla operates two factories in the US that construct each Mannequin 3 (Fremont, California) and Mannequin Y (Fremont, California and Austin, Texas) EVs, these amenities are largely centered on assembly demand from the US market.

And since the Shanghai manufacturing unit has the “lowest price construction” of Tesla’s manufacturing crops, it in all probability makes financial sense for the EV maker to export Mannequin Y (and probably Mannequin 3) EVs from China to Canada. 

Curiously, Tesla exporting EVs from China to North America is one thing Musk final yr mentioned it would not occur. He mentioned on the time that reviews indicating Tesla would undertake this technique had been “false.”