Tesla Car Sales In China Rebound

Following a difficult few months in China, Tesla reported a significant increase in sales in its most important international market in June.

Photo Insert: The rebound occurred as China began to relax COVID-related restrictions after months of lockdowns in major cities.

The rebound occurred as China began to relax COVID-related restrictions after months of lockdowns in major cities, and as the country works to increase car sales to promote growth, Laura He reported for CNN Business.

According to early figures issued on Wednesday by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), the US electric car maker sold approximately 78,000 Shanghai-made vehicles last month, a 142 percent increase from May.

According to CPCA, June sales were up 135 percent year on year. BYD, the Chinese EV manufacturer funded by Warren Buffett, was hot on Tesla's tail, selling 69,544 completely electric vehicles (EVs) last month.

Tesla's sales of Chinese-made vehicles were high at the start of this year, propelling the company to the top of the list of pure electric manufacturers. In March, it shipped 65,814 automobiles from its Shanghai facility, the vast majority of which were sold in China. This figure was 85 percent higher than a year ago.

That was before the city of Shanghai was shut down for two months to handle the country's biggest COVID outbreak. In April, Tesla's Shanghai factory was closed for several weeks. Even when the plant reopened, the company's output remained constrained due to supplier shortages.

Tesla's April sales dropped 98 percent from March to 1,512 vehicles. In May, deliveries increased to 32,165 but remained much lower than earlier this year.

Meanwhile, BYD has escaped the country's widespread lockdowns. BYD led the market in April, selling a record 106,000 new energy vehicles (NEV), up more than 300 percent from the previous year. 54 percent of them were all-electric, with the rest being plug-in hybrids. BYD's NEV sales increased further in May, reaching over 114,000 units.

Analysts attribute BYD's sales resiliency to its "vertical integrated supply chain," which has made the company less sensitive to supply chain disruptions during the lockdowns, while competitors had to reduce output due to chip and battery shortages.

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