1st Tesla owners in Shanghai include CEOs' wives

Crowds take photos of a Tesla model at the handover ceremony held in Shanghai on Wednesday. (Photo source: eastday.com)

(ECNS) – The first batch of Tesla electric cars were delivered to Shanghai and Beijing amid a fanfare of the luxury car's debut. But unlike in Beijing, where all the buyers were male, most in Shanghai were female, the Shanghai Morning Post reported.

Seven Tesla Model S cars were delivered to their buyers at a handover ceremony in the Jinqiao Development Zone of Shanghai on Wednesday.

Among the new owners who received keys from Elon Musk, the US electric car company's chief executive, were the wife of Sina's CEO Cao Guowei, wife of Yu Gang, CEO of 1 Store, a popular online supermarket in China, wife of Ctrip's CEO Liang Jianzhang, and Shao Qingxiao, managing partner of SMC China Fund.

Mrs. Cao said she can only open the car doors and didn't know how to start it yet. "The hi-tech is so cool," she added.

The initial price of a Tesla Model S in China is 734,000 yuan ($117,440), much higher than the $80,000 in the US.

As Tesla is not yet on China's list of new-energy automobiles, the electric car can't get subsidies from the government. But according to the Jinqiao Development Zone, subsidy applications for Tesla have been submitted. "If it is approved, a Tesla buyer can receive as much as 100,000 yuan ($16,000) in subsidy."

Two Tesla supercharger stations have been set up in Shanghai. Unfortunately, as they are supported by solar energy, the superchargers can't actually charge the cars.