Tesla continued to lose market share on the mainland to its Chinese rivals in February, as sales plunged more than 50 per cent.
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The US carmaker delivered 30,688 Shanghai-made Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles (EVs) to buyers last month, a decline of 51.5 per cent from January and 49.2 per cent from a year earlier, according to figures from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) on Thursday. The February figure was also the lowest since 28,217 vehicles were delivered in July 2022.
Across the nation, some 720,000 EVs were delivered in February, a drop of 3 per cent from January, according to the CPCA.
“Chinese rivals have been putting pressure on Tesla with their new models,” said Eric Han, a senior manager at Suolei, an advisory firm in Shanghai. “Indigenous brands also offered steep discounts to enhance their vehicles’ attractiveness to local consumers.”
Guangzhou-based Xpeng delivered 30,453 EVs last month, up 0.3 per cent from January and 570 per cent from a year earlier.
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BYD, the world’s largest EV builder, sold 322,846 units in February, up 7.4 per cent from the previous month and 164 per cent from a year earlier.
SU7, developed by smartphone vendor Xiaomi, has posed a threat to Tesla’s Model 3 since its launch last March, wowing customers with its style, performance and technology. In December, Xiaomi sold 25,815 SU7s compared with 21,046 for the Model 3, according to the CPCA.