Sales of American electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Tesla in China were down in April, continued a spiralling downward global trend, dropping by over 8 per cent from a year earlier, and by 61 per cent from the previous month.
Tesla’s decline in Chinese sales came even as total retail EV sales numbers increased year-over-year – although they were down slightly on March, but at a much lesser rate than Tesla’s result.
The Tesla sales performance has become a major talking point since a big decline in sales over the last six months, in part due to retooling of factories for the new Model Y, but also to the reaction of CEO Elon Musk’s controversial role in the new Trump administration.
New figures released over the weekend by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), and helpfully translated by CnEVPost, showed that Tesla sold 58,459 vehicles in China in April, including 28,731 vehicles for domestic sale and 29,728 for export.
This works out to be a drop of 8.56 per cent from the 31,421 sold domestically in April of 2024, and a massive 61.24 per cent drop on the 74,127 sold in China in March 2025. This is despite the fact that deliveries of the new Model Y began in February in China.
Overall sales including exports from China were down 5.96 per cent from the 62,167 reported in April of 2024, and down 25.84 per cent from the 78,828 recorded in March.
Tesla’s monthly figures are put into greater context when considering retail sales of passenger new energy vehicles (NEVs) in China totalled 905,000 for April, up 33.9 per cent on April 2024, although down by 8.7 per cent from March 2025.
Chinese sales of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) totalled 559,000 units in April, up 38 per cent from a year earlier but down 13.5 per cent from March, and accounting for 61.8 per cent of all NEV retail sales in April.
Overall, including all so-called “new energy vehicles” – which includes BEVs, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), and extended-range electric vehicles (EREVs) – NEVs accounted for 51.5 per cent of retail passenger car sales in China in April, up 7 per cent from April 2024 and up 0.4 per cent from the immediately preceding month.
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.
