According to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA)’s initial data, the overall wholesale vehicle shipments (local retail sales and export) of Tesla Made-in-China (MIC) cars last month amounted to 64,285 units.
That’s roughly a 128 percent increase year-over-year, although the high rate of growth is related to the low base of July 2022 (28,217), rather than a very high production rate at the Shanghai plant. In fact, July was the slowest month for MIC Tesla cars so far this year (right after an outstanding June, when 93,680 units were sold).
* CPCA reports wholesale shipments, not registrations/customer deliveries.
Nonetheless, the recent result should be considered as solid, as it’s the strongest July ever. The average monthly volume so far this year is over 77,000 units.
Besides that, there is a chance that Tesla slowed down a bit in July due to preparations for the upcoming refreshed Tesla Model 3 (codename Highland). Another reason could be vacations for some of the employees.
During the first seven months of 2023, Tesla’s wholesale vehicle shipments of the Made-in-China (MIC) Model 3 and Model Y amounted to 540,824 (up 68 percent year-over-year).
It’s worth noting also that the 12-month rolling volume increased once again and reached over 928,000 units, proving that the Tesla Giga Shanghai plant is the world’s largest electric car manufacturing plant, with a potential peak output believed to be noticeable above 1 million units annually.
As of today, the initial CPCA does not include numbers for retail sales and export or individual results for the two models, so the only thing we have is the numbers through June 2023.
In the past, the first month of a quarter was usually focused on export. Tesla exports both of its models to various global markets (although not to the United States).
The Tesla Model Y volume represents about two-thirds of the total wholesale volume (outpacing the Model 3 at a ratio of over 2:1).
