Photo: CNEVPost
As Tesla prepares to expand its production in China, the company is already off to a good start on the year — despite a slight drop in sales month-to-month.
Tesla sold 56,515 China-produced vehicles in February, according to data shared by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), and as reported by CNEVPost. February includes the Chinese New Year, a major holiday in the country that usually sees a dip in production, as workers take time off to travel home during a two-week period.
The figure marks a 208.5 percent increase year-over-year, despite a 5.6 percent drop in sales from January.
The data also showed that Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory delivered 33,315 vehicles in February, leaving a total of 23,200 units delivered in China.
Elon Musk Gives China’s U.S. Ambassador a Ride in a Tesla Model S Plaid https://t.co/Iu4AfQh00G
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) March 4, 2022
Other notable automakers with over 10,000 in vehicle sales in the CPCA’s February data included BYD with 87,473 units delivered, SAIC-GM-Wuling with 26,046 units delivered, Geely with 14,285 units and Chery with 10,271 units.
The news comes as the U.S automaker’s demand is bubbling over, with Tesla set to build a new production facility that’s expected to bring annual production up to 2 million cars.
Last February, Tesla released a media tour of Gigafactory Shanghai just as production was substantially ramping up.
In recent weeks, delivery wait times for Tesla’s China-made Model 3 units increased up to 20 weeks for some buyers, with some Model Y wait times set for as much as 14 weeks.
Throughout all of 2021, the automaker sold 473,078 China-made vehicles, after Tesla sold a record-breaking 70,847 in China in December.
