Tesla revs up in China as car registrations boom
Car registrations for US electric carmaker Tesla jumped 150 per cent month on month in May, as China gets back on track after lockdown.
Tesla’s China registrations, including cars that were imported, grew to 11,565 in May from 4,633 units in April.
Data from the China Passenger Car Association publisuhed today showed sales of Tesla’s Shanghai-made Model 3 sedan hit 11,095 units.
Tesla opened its Shanghai gigafactory in Decembery 2019, and is currently expanding it further with hopes to manufacture its Model Y by next year.
Tesla China’s vice president Tao Lin said in May the firm plans to ramp up production of the Model 3 by 30 per cent, with a target of 4,000 cars per week in June.
Overall production and sales of cars in China boomed last month, as the nation’s economy begins to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
Data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed 2.19m cars were produced and sold in China last month.
Production rose four per cent from April to produce a year-on-year increase of 18.2 per cent, much faster than the annual growth of 2.3 per cent in the previous month. Meanwhile sales were up 5.9 per cent on the month and 14.5 per cent.
For the first five months of 2020, China’s car production dropped a staggering 24.1 per cent to 7.79m units despite comparatively short factory closures.
Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory was ordered to close temporarily for two weeks at the end of January as the government took precautions to quarantine workers, but later reopened on 10 February.
The firm’s chief executive Elon Musk caused controversy earlier this year when he ordered Tesla factories in California to reopen, despite local rules mandating their closure.