Reports Of Tesla’s Demise In China Are Much Exaggerated

A few media articles were hinting that Tesla wasn’t doing so well in China. One in particular by Bloombergmentioned a “fall from grace in China.” The article quoted Bill Russo, a former Chrysler executive who is currently the chief executive officer of Automobility Ltd. Russo said that Tesla’s experience is “a warning shot that they need to stay between the lines, and not be so flamboyant in their success.” Russo spoke of Tesla’s arrogance in the way it conducts itself in China. “You can’t be so far up front that you become arrogant in the way you conduct yourself.”

The article also criticized Tesla’s response to the woman who claimed that her Model 3 had a brake failure as “combative.” It was later discovered that she faked the brake failure and publicly apologized for her drama. The Bloomberg article had no mention of that. The woman’s actions led to criticism of Tesla and even a few articles with false information. One media outlet actually apologized to Tesla. There was no mention of that in the Bloomberg article, either.

Needless to say, better news came out of China this week from Reuters, which reported that Tesla sold a total of 33,155 made-in-China vehicles last month. In May, CNNreported that Tesla could be doing worse in China than anyone thought and said that April sales were weaker than they appeared. The article noted that Tesla’s “drop in sales” was due to bad publicity that the company endured in the Chinese market since April.

Ray4Tesla analyzed the data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), which shared the news of Tesla’s progress. Tesla sold 28,138 vehicles in China last month and exported 5,017. This number is just a few cars lower than May’s numbers, but still, the fact remains that Tesla isn’t doing so badly in China as some of headlines would have you believe.

Investors.com claimed that Tesla’s stock rebounded recently due to strong sales in China and its new lower-range, lower-priced Model Y becoming available there. The latter was unveiled recently and the new pricing allows the made-in-China Model Y to be eligible for government subsidies. After discounts, Tesla owners in China will only have to pay 276,000 yuan ($42,600), which is around 20% less than the Model Y Long Range.

Vehicle Sales In China

Reuters reported that Honda and Nissan saw their sales in China fall last month and noted that the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said that vehicle sales in China will hit 1.93 million units in June. That number is down 16.3% from last year — a year that had pretty weak vehicle sales due to the pandemic.

SteelOrbis noted that CAAM also said that vehicle sales in China are expected to decline by 9.5% month on month. Both passenger vehicle sales and commercial vehicle sales are expected to see year-on-year decreases of 14.9% and 20.8% in the given month. CAAM also stated that July isn’t going to be much better since it’s traditionally off-season for auto vehicle consumption.

The Chinese auto market is constantly changing, and Tesla looks well positioned in it considering all trends.