Tesla has obtained an official government certificate of approval for Gigafactory 3 in record time ahead of the start of production, which is supposed to be imminent.

Gigafactory 3 is Tesla’s first manufacturing facility in China and it’s also the first electric vehicle factory wholly-owned by a foreign automaker in the country.

As the trade war between China and the US keeps getting more complicated, it’s becoming more important than ever for Tesla to have manufacturing capacity in China.

They will be able to avoid increasingly uncertain import tariffs in the biggest auto market in the world.

They have been moving extremely fast to get Gigafactory 3 ready.

About a year ago, Tesla announced a deal with the Shanghai government to build a wholly-owned local factory and less than a year ago, they secured the 210-acres of land for Gigafactory 3 in China necessary.

They officially broke ground in January and plan to be done with the building by this summer.

Recent drone videos show that Tesla already completed the majority of the giant building’s exterior last month.

Now on Monday, Tesla has obtained an important official certificate from the government needed before starting production.

China’s Global Times reported:

“Tesla’s electric car Gigafactory in Shanghai received its first comprehensive acceptance certificate on Monday, within three days of making an application, which sets a new inspection and approval timing record for the local government.”

Tesla has been getting a lot of support from the local government, which extended the free-trade zone to include the factory as part of the deal to bring Tesla to China.

CEO Elon Musk has been guiding a start of production in early Q4 2019, which would mean around October, and by the end of the year, Tesla aims for a rapid production ramp-up in phases starting with 3,000 vehicles per week.

Last month, Tesla released the first pictures from inside Gigafactory 3 — showing impressive progress.

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