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Tesla ends record quarter with jump in China shipments

The electric vehicle automaker shipped 88,869 vehicles from its Shanghai factory in March

The Tesla factory in Shanghai, China. Photograph: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

Tue Apr 4 2023 - 15:52

Tesla increased shipments from its plant in Shanghai as the electric car-maker was wrapping up a record quarter of vehicle deliveries.

The automaker shipped 88,869 vehicles from the factory in March, according to preliminary data released on Tuesday by China’s Passenger Car Association (PCA). Tesla’s wholesales were up 19 per cent from February and 35 per cent from a year ago.

The figures are a better indication of Tesla’s production than its deliveries, which reached a new high on a global basis last quarter while coming up short of some analysts’ estimates. The electric vehicle-maker’s shares plunged 6.1 per cent on Monday on concern that significant price cuts early this year yielded only an incremental gain in vehicle sales.

The stock rose 1.2 per cent as of 9am Tuesday in New York, before the start of regular trading.

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Tesla triggered a slew of discounts and incentive offerings from other carmakers when it slashed the prices of its locally-made EVs by as much as 14 per cent at the beginning of the year. Companies that followed suit ranged from Chinese EV start-ups Xpeng and Nio to international manufacturers including Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz Group and Ford.

Led by Elon Musk, Tesla sold 422,875 cars worldwide in the first quarter, up about 4 per cent from the preceding three months. For the fourth consecutive quarter the carmaker’s global production exceeded deliveries.

China’s overall new-energy passenger vehicle wholesales are estimated to be 600,000 units in March, an increase of 20 per cent from February, the PCA said Tuesday. Wholesales refer to the number of vehicles shipped to dealerships and delivery centres as opposed to retail consumers.

Separately, Tesla on Monday launched a portable home charger for the Chinese market, dubbed Cybervault. The charger, which has been designed, developed and manufactured by teams locally, will specifically satisfy the charging habits of Chinese consumers, the company said in a statement, without elaborating. – Bloomberg

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