Tesla’s (TSLA) sales have veered off course in yet another country with demand for its cars in China reversing by 6% last month.
Tesla’s Troubles
According to figures from the China Passenger Car Association, the EV maker, headed by Elon Musk, sold 58,459 China-made electric vehicles in April. This follows an 11.5% drop in year-over-year sales in March.
Deliveries of locally made Model 3 and Model Y vehicles slid 25.8% in April from the previous month.
The April performance was in stark contrast to that of Tesla’s Chinese rival BYD (BYDDY), with its Ocean and Dynasty lineup of EVs and plug-in hybrids. It saw a 19.4% year-on-year jump in passenger vehicle sales in April to 372,615 vehicles.
Tesla’s troubles have also slid into the less than merry month of May. In the week ending May 4, Tesla recorded 7,290 EV registrations, down 29% from 10,280 in the previous week. However deliveries are typically lower at the beginning of the month and the May 1-5 Labor Day holiday in China has also likely taken its toll on demand.
BYD, however, still outperformed Tesla with 59,310 registrations during the week, down 4.65% from the week before.
Nio (NIO) branded vehicles saw a 46.6% drop in registrations during the week, with Xpeng (XPEV) down 22%.
Global Declines
Tesla has faced a number of challenges in China in recent months such as intensifying local competition, the impact of tariffs from Musk’s great buddy President Trump, and what is seen as a lackluster range of vehicles in need of a revamp. It has tried to respond by introducing a refreshed Model Y in January this year.
The bad news from China adds to other sales declines in markets such as the U.K. where new car purchases saw a massive year-over-year drop of 62.1% in April.
Sales plunged by 80.7% to 203 units in Sweden, the lowest monthly total since October 2022. Also, in the Netherlands, sales were down 73.8%, the biggest drop since 2022. The company further witnessed 67.2% and 59.4% drops in Denmark and France, respectively.
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