Tesla plans to be shipping around 3,000 Model 3 vehicles per week in Europe starting in February, according to the port handling company that is preparing to receive them in Belgium.

Earlier this month, Tesla opened orders for the Model 3 in Europe.

The automaker has been talking about starting volume production for the European markets in January.

Following a few weeks of transit, the vehicles should arrive in Europe for the first deliveries in February.

The volume is expected to be quite significant considering Tesla has been able to maintain a demand of over 4,000 Model 3’s per week in North America and the demand for the vehicle is expected to be similar in size in Europe.

Now International Car Operators (ICO), a port handling and storage company specializing in roll-on/roll-off cargo in the port of Zeebrugge, Belgium, says that they are expecting 3,000 Model 3 vehicles per weeks starting in February.

According to Belgium’s Focus WTV (hat tip to Tim), it’s a significant project that will create over 100 new jobs:

“The cars are shipped to Europe from the San Francisco plant in the US via the Zeebrugse site of International Car Operators. Electric cars are distributed across Europe from the coastal port. The new traffic is good for more than a hundred new jobs in the finishing center. There the Teslas are subjected to a final check and provided with extras before they go to the car dealer. The company invests 2.5 million euros in the new traffic.”

ICO has started posting job listings on job sites for the project.

Here’s how they describe the new positions:

For a project in collaboration with Tesla, ICO is looking for motivated handy assembly workers with technical insight. As an assembly employee at ICO, these can be your tasks: You will be deployed for limited assembly and assembly on new cars. Although this will include repetitive work, a high quality of work will always be expected here.

Cleaning the cars

Removing the protective paraffin and co-polymer layer from the cars

Inspection of cars according to the instructions of Tesla

The application or removal of a special protective film on the Tesla cars.

Preparing lease vehicles

Maintenance of long-stored cars

Installation of accessories (radio, air conditioning, GPS, tinted windows, etc)

Based on the description, final inspection of the Model 3 would be done on site in Zeebrugge.

That’s unlike Tesla’s Model S and Model X going to several European markets who go through final assembly at Tesla’s factory in Tilburg in the Netherlands.

Electrek’s Take

The volume sounds about right. By that time, Tesla would be expected to produce a steady 7,000+ Model 3 vehicles per week.

Some of them will stay in North America and some are also going to China, which remains a wild card at this point, especially with the tariffs potentially going down.

About 3,000 units per week going to Europe would make sense in my opinion.

It also makes sense for Tesla to partner with a logistics company to handle the new volume since we are talking about more than doubling the automaker’s usual European volume.

It’s going to be interesting to see how Tesla Europe handles the arrival of Model 3 on the continent.

While they had much more time to prepare, it looks like they are not going to see a slow ramp up like the team did in the US. They are going to start right off the bat with high volumes.

I would expect that some adjustments are going to be needed at the retail and service level.

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