Tesla Inc will deliver its first China-made Model 3 sedans to the public on Jan. 7 at an event at its Shanghai plant, a representative for the firm said on Thursday.

The Shanghai plant is part of the Silicon Valley automaker’s plans to bolster its presence in the world’s biggest auto market and minimize the impact of the U.S.-China trade war.

Fifteen Tesla employees who had purchased the car were the first to take delivery on Monday after the first China-made vehicles rolled off the plant’s production line in October.

The deliveries come a year after construction of Tesla’s only plant outside the United States began. Production started in October with a target of 250,000 vehicles per year once the Model Y is added to the line up.

“As Model 3s roll off Tesla’s Chinese manufacturing facility with local subsidies intact, we believe the U.S.-based focus will need to shift globally for the company,” Canaccord Genuity analyst Jed Dorsheimer wrote in a note to clients.

China will be an important market for the company in 2020, said Dorsheimer, who raised his price target on Tesla to $515, the second-highest on Wall Street.

The Model 3 is priced at 355,800 yuan ($50,000) before subsidies. Tesla said previously that it wanted to start deliveries before the Chinese new year beginning Jan. 25.

Tesla’s China general manager, Wang Hao, said the company plans to ramp up Model 3 deliveries in January.

Tesla executives also told reporters the plant had achieved a production target of 1,000 units per week, or around 280 cars a day, and that sales for the China-made sedan had so far been “very good”.

Hao had said the company will double the number of service centers and fast charging stations in China in 2020.

Shares of Tesla, which is expected to report its fourth-quarter delivery numbers in the next few days, rose 1.1% to $422.88 in premarket trading.

The stock, which touched a record high of $435.31 last week, has had a strong run in recent months on the back of posting a rare profit in the latest quarter and news of China ramp up. (Reporting by Yilei Sun and Brenda Goh, Additional Reporting by Amal S; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Anil D’Silva) Tech show offers big and flashy, up-close and (very) personal San Francisco, Jan 2, 2020 (AFP) - The screens will be bigger and bolder, the cars will be smarter and some of the technology will be up-close and personal − even intimate.

The 2020 Consumer Electronics Show opening in Las Vegas will be crammed with the latest in connected devices, from light bulbs to underwear, along with the newest technology for automobiles, health and wellness, smart homes, retailing and more.

One of the world’s biggest trade shows, the gathering features 4,500 exhibitors, an estimated 175,000 attendees, and 1,000 speakers in exhibit areas equivalent to more than 50 football fields. The CES runs from January 7 to 10.

Small startups and large tech firms from dozens of countries will be angling for a slice of the trillion-dollar-plus global consumer electronics marketplace.

The show, organised by the Consumer Technology Association, will see a large presence from tech giants such as Google and Amazon, vying for leadership in providing the “brains” or digital assistants for many smart products.

With improvements in artificial intelligence (AI), digital voice assistants are becoming smarter and more like humans, opening up new possibilities, said Simon Forrest of Futuresource Consulting.

“We can see devices that can now sound happy if your favourite football team has won and... dejected if your mother is at the door,” Forrest said. While the long-sought goal of “emotional intelligence” in computing is still far from reality, he said, advances are allowing more computing power to be packed into smaller spaces including smart eyeglasses, in-ear “hearables” and other devices.

“We can imagine the voice assistant in the ear which can do a lot more than it does today,” Forrest said. “Maybe the restaurant across the street can read you their menu, or you can get turn-by-turn directions in your car.” - Big and small screens - Manufacturers including South Korea’s LG are expected to unveil new televisions with the latest ultra-high definition standard known as 8K, even if little or no content is now available in the format.

Analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy said he expects to see “higher-resolution, lower-price 8K televisions,” extending a trend.

 Reuters