Tesla sales crisis spreads to China as GigaShanghai plant volumes in April shrink for 7th straight month to lowest level in years
Cars sold from Tesla's Chinese factory fell 6% over the previous April to mark their lowest level since Shanghai entered lockdown over a new COVID strain in 2022.
- Wholesale vehicle shipments from Tesla's Chinese factory dropped 6% over the previous April, marking the seventh consecutive year-on-year drop. The nearly 58,500 cars sold at home and abroad is the lowest number overall since 2022, when the factory struggled to operate at full pace amid city-wide lockdowns following an outbreak of COVID’s Omicron strain.
Tesla’s seeming reluctance to develop new EV models that can expand the brand into new segments of the global auto market, including compact cars, is coming back to haunt it.
On Wednesday, China’s Passenger Car Association (CPCA) reported figures that showed Tesla shipped 58,459 Model 3 sedans and Model Y crossovers from its GigaShanghai factory last month.
This is 6% fewer than the previous April, which had the same number of working days, and represents the seventh consecutive year-on-year monthly decline. It is also the lowest number overall since 2022, when the factory struggled to operate at full pace amid city-wide lockdowns following an outbreak of COVID’s Omicron strain.
As a result, Tesla’s Shanghai operations slid to fourth in the domestic rankings of largest manufacturers of EVs and plug-in hybrids—or “New Energy Vehicles” in China’s parlance—now behind Geely and SAIC-GM-Wuling as well as market leader BYD.
