In February 2023, Tesla once again increased wholesale sales of Made-in-China (MIC) Model 3/Model Y electric cars in China.
According to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA)’s data, the overall wholesale vehicle shipments (local retail sales and export) amounted to 74,402 units, which is almost 32 percent more than a year ago.
Not only that, the latest result is also better than in January (66,051) and in December (55,796).
* CPCA reports wholesale shipments, not registrations/customer deliveries.
The crucial element behind the positive results in the past two months was the price reduction (later adjusted a bit).
So far this year, the total volume amounted to 140,453 MIC cars, which is close to 21 percent more than a year ago.
We expect that Tesla should not have any issues with exceeding last year’s results in the next few months because they were affected by lockdowns. Things will get really interesting in the second part of the year.
The main question is whether Tesla will be able to once again exceed 80,000 or even 100,000 units (like it once did).
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported two weeks ago that the Giga Shanghai plant will temporarily halt production in the second part of February. Separately, Reuters also reported about some upcoming work (retooling) at the site in March to handle the upcoming upgrade of the Model 3 (project Highland), but as we can see, the factory is still cranking some serious volume.
Retail sales data is not yet available, so we present the chart only through January 2023.
Export sales data is not yet available, so we present the chart only through January 2023.
Tesla produces in Shanghai two MIC models – Model 3 and Model Y (both in various versions).
We are still waiting for the data on local sales in China, which are currently available only through January (see the chart below).