Tesla deliveries in China shot up in August, approaching record highs set in June, after it ramped up capacity in its Shanghai facility. Tesla stock edged up Thursday.
Elon Musk's electric-vehicle giant delivered around 77,000 autos in China during August, according to Thursday numbers released by the China Passenger Car Association. More than 42,000 of those were exports, meaning Tesla deliveries totaled 34,502 vehicles to consumers in China last month.
Covid-19 restrictions and lockdowns in China have hit the country's EV sector, with many companies experiencing production losses in recent months. Tesla has not been immune, with Shanghai's two-month lockdown in April and May resulting in a huge slowdown for the EV manufacturer.
Tesla China's wholesale sales, fell to just 28,217 in July, the China Passenger Car Association said. That was down 64% vs. June and 14% vs. a year earlier. The company's China division exported 19,756 vehicles, with just 8,461 vehicles delivered locally.
Tesla stock increased 1.96% to 289.26 Thursday during market trading.
Tesla Deliveries Bounce Back
However, Tesla's August numbers appear to show a recovery. Tesla deliveries increased around 173% compared with July and are up 74% year over year. While Tesla has several new vehicle models in development, the facility in Shanghai makes the Model Y and Model 3.
Musk has said that Tesla usually focuses on producing vehicles for export in the first half of a quarter and then shifts towards domestic markets in the second half. This could be an indicator that production and deliveries to customers in China could reach significantly higher numbers in September.
The recent capacity increases to the Tesla Shanghai facility could significantly boost production going forward. Wait times for vehicles in China reportedly already have fallen.
In late August, wait times for basic Model Y models dropped from 4-8 weeks to 1-4 weeks. Further, on Sept. 7, the time for Tesla deliveries in China was cut by six weeks for all models except the entry-level Model Y, according to CnEVPost.
Tesla's Competition
While Tesla's stranglehold on the global EV market remains, it has begun to lose ground in China to Warren Buffett-backed BYD.
BYD posted record August China EV sales numbers, selling 174,915 new energy vehicles, or NEVs, in August. That's a 184% year-over-year increase and the sixth-straight month of record sales. Of those deliveries, 173,977 were passenger vehicles and 938 were from its commercial line. NEVs include fully electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell vehicles.
The company sold 82,678 all-electric passenger vehicles, up 172% from the same month in 2021. Tesla deliveries of plug-in hybrid vehicles grew 203% to 91,299 in August.
BYD President Wang Chuanfu has said the company is setting a target of 4 million deliveries in 2023. The China EV giant is likely to easily top 1.5 million deliveries in 2022.
BYD's Answer To Tesla
BYD also is rolling out several new EV-only and hybrid-only models in the coming months. The Seal sedan is BYD's first clear-cut competitor to Tesla's Model 3. The vehicle has roughly equal dimensions and range to a Model 3 — and is $10,000 cheaper.
More than 1,000 SEAL sedans have already been delivered, Wang said Friday, according to CnEVPost. BYD had previously said Seal preorders topped 60,000 since they opened on May 20.
Meanwhile, analysts have expected Tesla deliveries to reach 1.5 million in 2022, amid slow production at its plants in Germany and Austin, Texas. Musk said on Aug. 4 he expects Tesla production to hit a run rate of 2 million vehicles by the end of 2022.
Tesla produces four electric vehicles: the luxury Model S sedan and Model X SUV as well as the Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover. The Roadster, Semi and Cybertruck have been pushed back multiple times.
Please follow Kit Norton on Twitter @KitNorton for more coverage.
