There seems to be no shortage of interest for the locally-made Tesla Model 3 in China. A Tesla store in Shanghai was recently filled with so many potential customers this past weekend following the company’s first customer Model 3 deliveries last week that some people were asked to form a queue outside the store.
The spike in interest from Chinese citizens also comes after Tesla announced an over $7,000 price decrease for its Made-in-China Model 3. The strategy was used by Tesla to undercut popular local automakers and fellow premium segment rivals in China.
Twitter user and Tesla enthusiast @Ray4Tesla uploaded numerous photos of the Taiguhui Tesla Experience Center in Shanghai this past weekend, showing the location filled with people looking to order their electric vehicles. Reports from local media state that hundreds of Model 3s are being ordered at each store per day and 1,200 are being ordered in China daily.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrived in Shanghai on January 7 to announce the first public deliveries of the Model 3 to Chinese citizens. The man responsible for Tesla’s growth in success within the past few years danced on stage as the company also announced the kickoff of its Model Y program.
Tesla expects to begin delivering the first Made-in-China Model 3s to Chinese orderers by the end of 2020’s first quarter.
China is the world’s largest automotive market and Tesla expects to take advantage of this. Gigafactory 3 is already building at a run-rate of 3,000 Model 3s a week to keep up with the overwhelming demand in the country. Judging by the scene this past weekend at the Shanghai store, there are plenty of people anxious to get their hands on a Made-in-China Model 3.
China is Tesla’s key to a big 2020, according to analyst Dan Ives. In early January, the Wedbush Securities analyst stated the initial production rate of GF3 and Tesla’s ability to ramp up to an even higher number will be crucial to the company’s success this year. “The bull/bear debate will center around ramping production and demand to the 100k/150k level annually in China and how quick this dynamic will ramp,” Ives wrote in a note on January 2.
Gigafactory 3 was built in 2019 in record time. The company broke ground on the production plant on January 7, 2019, and held its Model 3 delivery event to local customers exactly a year later.
Tesla is ramping up its international presence as it recently began developing land in Germany for its first European production plant that is expected to initially produce 150,000 Model Y and Model 3s a year. The company is coming off of a strong Q4 in 2019 where they delivered 112,000 vehicles in the final three months of the year. With Tesla’s increased output across the world, it is hard to believe that many of the world’s Tesla stores won’t experience this type of popularity when they inevitably open.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner in Los Angeles dominated the company’s global usage rankings after just one year, proving the concept is more than just a one-off novelty location that will fade away.
The performance could incite the company to build more locations, something that CEO Elon Musk has hinted at for some time.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner delivered 21.2 GWh of energy in its first year of operation, the company’s head of Charging, Max de Zegher, revealed on X. Of the top 10 most utilized Supercharger locations in Tesla’s global infrastructure, the Diner in Los Angeles was the most used by drivers, and it wasn’t particularly close:
Tesla Diner opened exactly 1 year ago. Inspiring that futuristic places like this exist.
It’s our highest usage Supercharger in the world: 21.2 GWh delivered in a year, 1.6k sessions/day.
Top 10 Superchargers by energy delivered: https://t.co/9YvJ8lw696 pic.twitter.com/koB3AUJHws
— Max (@MdeZegher) July 21, 2026
On its launch day one year ago, nobody was too sure what the Tesla Diner would be about. It seemed like an interesting concept, and considering it had been in the works for years, it was a highly anticipated launch that many were looking forward to.
Based on its success, we could see additional Diners with Superchargers built throughout the United States, and potentially beyond. Musk has said on several occasions that the company would be willing to bring the Diner idea to more markets.
Tesla makes major change at Supercharger Diner amid epic demand
Of the markets that Musk has mentioned, both Palo Alto and Austin have come to be perceived as ideal selections. However, there are no concrete plans as of now to build new Supercharger Diners anywhere; the location on Santa Monica Boulevard will remain the exclusive spot to pick up Tesla-inspired eats, at least for the time being.
Tesla short sellers won big following the company’s massive fall on Wall Street after it reported subpar Earnings on Wednesday.
Tesla short sellers collected about $4.12 billion in single-day profits on Thursday, according to Bloomberg. Shares fell as much as 15 percent during Thursday’s session. It closed as one of the worst days for Tesla on Wall Street in the past three years.
Investors sold off the stock after Tesla said it would aggressively direct its spending toward AI and its Optimus robot project. The company had record revenues, which were driven by one of the strongest quarters in terms of vehicle deliveries in company history.
However, it missed EPS estimates by reporting just $0.33, a far cry from the $0.53 analysts expected.
S3 Partners reported that about 3 percent of Tesla’s outstanding stock is sold short. Managing Director at S3, Ihor Dusaniwsky, provided the short seller’s potential profit, as well as another figure: shorts have likely had paper gains of $8.92 billion this year, as Tesla shares are down 30 percent in 2026.
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Tesla has burned short sellers many times in the past, but the company’s latest Earnings Call was a chance for those skeptics to taste some payback. Although the company gave some very transparent information regarding future projects, the rollout of Robotaxi, Optimus, and Semi, many investors took their profits on Thursday.
Notable short sellers like Michael Burry have been transparent about their skepticism around Tesla shares. Burry just revealed three weeks ago that he had opened up a new short on the stock, stating he shorted Tesla shares at $416.22. “Happy it jumped back to this level,” he said in a blog post.
At the time of publication, Tesla shares were down about 3 percent and the stock was trading at $309.92.
Tesla’s long-standing saga regarding its door handles and a manual release has entered its latest chapter, and as a result, a big change is coming.
On Friday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) denied Tesla’s petition that was seeking a defect investigation into roughly 180,000 Model 3 vehicles for an issue involving the emergency mechanical door release.
🚨 The NHTSA denied a petition from Tesla that would have thrown out concerns regarding its door handles.
NHTSA said Tesla’s petition did not present evidence of a safety-related defect warranting an investigation. The agency said a rulemaking process would be a better strategy. pic.twitter.com/j6PzUBM1mT
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 24, 2026
NHTSA said that Tesla’s petition did not present evidence of a safety-related defect in the door handles or their emergency releases. Instead, the agency determined that it would rather solve the issue of the lack of labeling or location of emergency mechanical door releases and the federal safety rules that govern them.
Essentially, the NHTSA wants to create and enforce rules that would require automakers to make emergency door latch releases more clearly labeled in a car. Despite a Tesla having manual door releases on all four passenger doors, many people do not know they exist or how they work.
Tesla addresses door handle complaints with simple engineering fix
In recent times, Tesla has faced some criticism involving its door handles, specifically because some occupants have reported that they are unable to exit their vehicles after losing power. The door handles on a Tesla are electronically operated, but in the event that the 12V battery dies, there is a manual release that can be used.
The NHTSA only identified a single complaint involving the mechanical door releases: a 2022 Model 3 owner said the release was concealed and unlabeled after the vehicle lost power after a front-end collision. It has also already started to create a separate rulemaking process to make emergency door-egress systems more obvious.
It should be noted that all Teslas have mechanical emergency door releases, but they are placed in various locations as the vehicles have aged and been redesigned from year to year. Refer to the safety manual for your vehicle if you have any confusion about where the emergency releases are and how they work.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner probably just secured more locations
Tesla short sellers win big after shares fall after earnings
