Tesla sold 84,159 units in China in August
Tesla China sold 84,159 locally produced vehicles in China in August, which is up 31 percent from July this year as reported by Reuters recently. According to data released recently by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), this includes vehicles for export.
This figure is up 30.92 percent from 64,285 in July and 9.35 percent from 76,965 in the same month last year.
According to data monitored by CnEVPost, Tesla sold 624,983 locally produced vehicles in China from January to August of this year. Tesla has a factory in Shanghai that makes Model 3 and also the larger Model Y. The plant not only provides supplies to local customers, but it is also an export hub.
Currently, Tesla offers three versions of Model Y in China: entry-level rear-wheel drive version, dual-motor all-wheel drive Model Y long range version, and dual-motor all-wheel drive Model Y performance version.
Tesla reduced the price of the Model Y long range and Model Y performance version by 14,000 yuan (about USD130) in China on Aug. 14, a reduction of about 4 percent. At the time, the price of the entry-level Model Y remained unchanged.
This move reduced the starting price of the Model Y long-lasting version from RMB 313,900 to RMB 299900, and the starting price of the Model Y performance version from RMB 363,900 to RMB 349,900.
Tesla’s Chinese website shows that Chinese customers who now order the long-lasting version of the Model Y are expected to wait six to eight weeks for delivery, which is longer than the previous two to six weeks.
Tesla’s plant in Shanghai has capacity to produce 1.1 million EVs a year and accounts for more than half of the carmaker’s global output.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg news reported that Tesla also started a price war in China last year when it cut prices on its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, prompting many of its increasingly powerful local competitors to do the same. The reductions didn’t lead to a lasting bout of buying in China, which is struggling to lift economic growth following Covid.
Still, Chinese EV startups are seeing a recent increase in sales, with BYD Co. which is the top-selling car brand, delivering 262,161 new energy vehicles in July. Then there is Xpeng Inc., which has signed a deal to produce EVs with Volkswagen AG, reported a 28 percent increase in sales from June to 11,008 units, while Li Auto Inc. shipped 34,134 cars in July and Nio Inc.’s deliveries jumped to 20,462.
