Elon Musk's moment of truth arrives as Made-in-China Teslas roll out

Elon Musk’s decision to assemble Tesla Inc. cars in China required years of planning and billions of dollars in spending. Now comes the challenging part.

The electric Model 3 sedans rolling off the assembly line at Tesla’s Shanghai plant — its first outside the US — face a market where total vehicle sales are expected to fall for a third straight year. After capturing about 5 per cent of China’s car sales, electric vehicles have been losing steam as the economy cooled and the government scaled back subsidies for buyers.

That could spell trouble for a launch that investors are watching closely