Tesla's China-made EV sales volume falls 10.9%

BYD electric cars waiting to be loaded on a ship are stacked at Suzhou Port, in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province. (AFP via Getty Images)

BEIJING/SHANGHAI — U.S. automaker Tesla sold 74,073 China-made electric vehicles (EVs) in September, a 10.9% decrease from a year earlier, showed data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) on Sunday.

Sales of China-made Model 3 and Model Y cars were down 12.0% from a month earlier.

Chinese rival BYD, with its Dynasty and Ocean series of EVs and petrol-electric hybrid models, saw passenger vehicle deliveries grow 42.8% to 286,903 last month, from 200,973 in September last year.

Tesla, along with its China challengers, is bracing for a revival in consumer sentiment, buoyed by deeper discounts and tax breaks for green vehicles amid signs of the economy stabilizing.

The company missed market estimates for third-quarter global deliveries on Oct. 2 as planned upgrades at its factories to roll out a newer version of the Model 3 mass-market sedan forced production halts.

The U.S. automaker, which ships more China-made cars for exports at the beginning of each quarter while focusing on domestic deliveries at the end, almost doubled its China EV share from July to August.

It unveiled in September a restyled Model 3 with a starting price of 259,900 yuan in China, 12% higher than the previous, and would start delivering in the fourth quarter.

Its Chinese rival Xpeng also launched a revamped G9 SUV to sell from 263,900 yuan, 15% lower than the previous.

Tesla, the largest exporter of China-made EVs, is also facing a probe by the European Commission into subsidies for battery-powered cars from China, along with Renault and other Chinese automakers.