Tesla's China sales slow as price-cut boost wanes

Cypherpunk Technologies

28/02/2023 11:26

SHANGHAI, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Tesla Inc's  TSLA.O 
electric vehicle (EV) sales in China rose last week but were
still running short of the pace seen in the fourth quarter,
indicating the bump from discounted prices in its biggest
overseas market is waning.
        The U.S. automaker nearly doubled weekly retail sales in
the week of Feb. 20 to 10,703 vehicles versus a week prior,
showed data from China Merchants Bank International (CMBI) on
Tuesday, which tracks weekly retail sales based on car insurance
registrations.
        The tally was the highest after that of the week of Jan.
9 when Tesla sold 12,654 Model 3 and Model Y cars after lowering
prices by as much as 14% on Jan. 6.
    However, year-to-date average daily sales was 1,016 cars,
whereas in October and November the figure was 1,317, indicating
that price cuts may not be enough to accelerate sales in the
first quarter compared with the fourth.
    Tesla didn't immediately response to a request for comment
on Tuesday.
    Sales are slowing in part due to an ageing product line,
said Yale Zhang, managing director at Shanghai-based consultancy
Automotive Foresight. Consumers are also delaying purchases
while waiting to see if other EV makers cut prices, Zhang said.
    The U.S. automaker has lagged competitors in China in
introducing new models, improving navigation systems and adding
luxury interior touches or white-glove customer service to meet
a developing range of consumer tastes, analysts and fans said.
    Chief Executive Elon Musk will announce the third part of
Tesla's "Master Plan" on its March 1 Investor Day, when the firm
has to convince investors that even though rivals are catching
up, Tesla can widen its lead with another leap forward.
    While competition intensifies, Tesla aims to grow exports
and expand into new markets to digest output from its factory in
Shanghai. It has started delivering cars to Thailand and set up
its first Supercharger station in the Southeast Asian country
earlier in February.
        Tesla had planned to keep Shanghai's average weekly
output at 20,000 vehicles in February and March, while its plant
in German capital Berlin increased Model Y production to a third
of that in Shanghai. 
    Tesla's performance is in line with China's overall EV
sector, which has suffered from the end of a more than
decade-long government subsidy. Its share of the country's
fragmented new energy vehicle market including both all-electric
and plug-in hybrid cars slightly declined to 9% from 10% a year
earlier, according to CMBI data. 
    Meanwhile, the market share of BYD Co Ltd  002594.SZ 
 1211.HK  surged to 37% from 27%, CMBI data showed. Smaller EV
players such as Leap Motor and Great Wall Motor Co Ltd's
 601633.SS  Ora are among those whose market share shrank.


 (Reporting by Zhang Yan, Brenda Goh; Editing by Christopher
Cushing)
 ((Zoey.Zhang@thomsonreuters.com;))