Tesla China ended the week of June 17-23, 2024 with 17,500 new vehicle registrations. This represents a 49% improvement from the 11,700 registrations that the electric car maker saw the previous week. It also represents the strongest week of new vehicle registrations for Tesla China year to date.
Tesla China does not report its weekly sales figures, though a general idea of the company’s overall performance in the domestic Chinese auto market can be inferred through the number of new vehicle registrations. Fortunately, these registrations are tracked closely by industry watchers. Automakers such as Li Auto have even made a habit of sharing vehicle registration data on a weekly basis.
And as per Li Auto’s recent data, Tesla China saw 17,500 new vehicle registrations in the week ending June 23, 2024. Considering Tesla China’s registrations last week, which are the strongest this year so far, the electric vehicle maker’s year-to-date sales this 2024 are lagging just about 4.6% compared to the same period in 2023. If Tesla China could end the second quarter on a strong note, this gap may prove even smaller by the end of the quarter.
Estimates from industry watchers also suggest that among Tesla China’s 17,500 new vehicle registrations, 6,000 were reengineered Model 3 sedans. This bodes well for the all-electric sedan, particularly the new Tesla Model 3 Performance, which started its customer deliveries in China recently.
Giga Shanghai serves as Tesla’s largest electric vehicle factory by volume, and it is also the company’s primary vehicle export hub. With this in mind, Tesla China typically allots a significant amount of its resources to vehicle exports in the first half of a quarter. This means that domestic vehicle orders from customers in China are typically delivered in the latter half of a quarter.
Tesla China’s strong registrations in the week ending June 23 could then be an indication that such a strategy is still being adopted. The numbers could also suggest that Tesla China’s exports this June 2024 would likely be lower than May’s 17,358 vehicles, as noted in a CNEV Post report. Expectations are currently high that Tesla China’s domestic sales this June would reach about 55,000 units, as per Deutsche Bank analyst Wang Bin.
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