U.S. automaker Tesla sold 74,402 vehicles in China in February, representing a 31.65 percent increase year over year, according to data shared by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) this week (via @Tslachan).
The figure also represents a 12.64 percent increase from the automaker’s 66,051 units sold in January. Tslachan also pointed out that fellow Tesla news page Troy Teslike had predicted 62,814 sales for February.
$TSLA
• 테슬라차이나 2월 판매량 : 74,402
(Tesla China Sales in February: 74,402)
– 트로이 추정치 : 62,814 pic.twitter.com/bmYquJyEUR— Tsla Chan (@Tslachan) March 3, 2023
Tesla’s sales took second on the top-sellers list, with BYD at the top having sold 191,664 of its gas and electric vehicle (EV) units in the same month. Other notable brands that sold less than Tesla included SAIC-GM-Wuling (10,982) and Geely (23,000), among others still.
During Tesla’s Investor Day, Tom Zhu, its global production chief, said recent price drops in China spurred more demand than Giga Shanghai could produce.
Tom Zhu addressed demand concerns in China at Investor Day, saying literally that recent price cuts have created huge demand, more than they can produce – I don’t think he’s lying, so if Tesla exports cars to Europe, they must be pretty sure they can also sell them there .. pic.twitter.com/LG5N3hw1TC
— 🫶 JCV (@jcvbavaria) March 3, 2023
Tesla sales in China have been gradually growing throughout Q1, as was shown in a report from earlier this week using estimated figures from insurance data, released before the current data was made public.
The report also showed how most of Tesla’s deliveries take place in the last month of the quarter, suggesting that the automaker could expect even more deliveries in the Chinese market in March.
Tesla’s January sales of its cars made it Gigafactory Shanghai jumped 18 percent from those in December, with demand seeing a boost after the automaker’s sweeping price reductions early on in the month.
