Shanghai (ZXZC)- During the first quarter of 2020 (Q1), a total of 18,587 consumers in China bought the Mandatory Liability Insurance for Traffic Accidents of Motor Vehicle (MLI) for Tesla-branded vehicles, according to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission.

With 16,015 units registered, the China-built Model 3 accounted for 86% of the Q1 total. Among 2,572 imported vehicles, the volume of the Model 3, Model X and Model S stood at 1,380 units, 1,046 units and 146 units respectively.

As to the whereabouts of the locally-made model, Shanghai outnumbered other cities by the Q1 deliveries thanks to its favorable location—this is where Tesla's Gigafactory 3 located. Cities ranked second to fifth were Beijing, Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Guangzhou. All of the top 5 are the so-called first-tiered cities in China.

At the provincial level, Guangdong was the only one whose deliveries exceeded 3,000 units. 

The EV manufacturer had 2,605 China-made Model 3s insured in January, where the scale delivery kicked off. The number sank to 2,132 units in February, which was still an exceptional performance when the sales of most all-electric models took a hit due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Tesla saw the insurance volume of the well-received homegrown model surge to 11,278 units in March, 9,848 units more than that of imported cars. According to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), China's wholesales of locally-produced new energy PVs slumped 49% year on year to 56,410 units last month.

(China-built Model 3 Long Range RWD, photo source: Tesla's WeChat account)

On April 10, The China-built Tesla Model 3's Long Range RWD and Performance AWD formally hit the market on April 10 with respective starting price of RMB339,050 (after subsidy) and RMB419,800 (before subsidy).

The automaker kicked off at the same time of the Long Range RWD cars and plans to hand over them to consumers from this year's June.