Cars
Published on July 9th, 2020 |
by Steve Hanley
July 9th, 2020 by Steve Hanley
China is experiencing a decline in new car sales so far this year, but that hasn’t stopped sales of Tesla’s Model 3 from climbing dramatically from month to month. Want proof? Try this on for size: In April, Tesla sold 3,635 Model 3s, according to the China Passenger Car Association. (All vehicle sales were constrained in April due to the hangover from the coronavirus pandemic.) In May, that number rose to 11,095, making the Tesla Model 3 the best selling electric car in China by a wide margin.
Now the June figures are out and sales of the Tesla Model 3 were up a whopping 35% at just under 15,000 cars sold — 14,954 to be precise. Yahoo! Finance notes the CPCA counts sales, not deliveries. Tesla only reports the number of cars that have actually been delivered to customers by the end of the month. It also does not like to provide details about how many cars were delivered in individual countries, so the CPCA data is vital to understanding what is going on inside China.
There is one dark cloud on the horizon for the new-car market in China. Overall, passenger car sales in June fell 6.5% year-on-year to 1.68 million units. Battery electric vehicles accounted for 67,000 units in June, with the Tesla Model 3 responsible for 23% of those sales the CPCA said. Worldwide, Tesla delivered 80,050 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in June, so the sales in China played a significant role in the company’s sales performance for that month.
Overall, things have been very good for Tesla lately, as it is just about the only US car manufacturer to report an increase in sales in the second quarter when so many factories were shut down. That, among other things, has led to a dramatic increase in the price of Tesla shares as investors begin to realize those legacy automakers may not all be around that much longer.
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About the Author
Steve Hanley Steve writes about the interface between technology and sustainability from his homes in Florida and Connecticut or anywhere else the Singularity may lead him. You can follow him on Twitter but not on any social media platforms run by evil overlords like Facebook.