Tesla Inc. TSLA experienced a decline in sales in China compared to rivals like Nio Inc. NIO, Xpeng Inc. XPEV, Li Auto Inc. LI and BYD Co. Ltd. BYDDY BYDDF, which posted strong growth in May.
What Happened: Li Auto experienced 17% growth in deliveries with 40,856 vehicles delivered in May, while Nio and Xpeng posted over 33,525 and 23,321 deliveries each, a report from Barron’s on Sunday revealed.
Meanwhile, Chinese giant BYD’s BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) sales grew 40% year-on-year, as the company delivered 204,369 EVs in May.
However, Elon Musk‘s EV giant recorded around 58,000 April sales in China, including exports, and the company’s sales performance in the first eight weeks of Q2 2025 declined 23% YoY, as per the report.
Why It Matters: The report comes in as Tesla has experienced a growth in May as the company posted more than 11,000 registrations in China for two consecutive weeks, despite a poor start to the month with a little over 3,000 new registrations.
Despite this, Tesla’s poor run continues throughout multiple markets as the EV giant reported a 49% drop in sales in the European market during April, as BYD overtook the company for the first time.
However, analysts are optimistic about the company owing to June 12’s Robotaxi launch in Austin as well as developments in the company’s FSD tech.
BYD, on the other hand, continues to expand its presence in the global market while it faces scrutiny from Beijing over the company’s aggressive discount strategy that has started a price war in the Chinese domestic EV market.
Elsewhere, Li Auto recently beat analyst expectations following the company’s Q1 earnings call, where CEO Li Xiang announced the company’s plans to release 2 new fully-electric SUVs this year.
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