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Tesla Model 3 and Model Y are making serious waves in China’s most notable EV sector
It is almost strange to see an automotive market open to vehicles of all segments being dominated by premium competitors. Yet this is precisely what seems to be happening in China, with the country’s recent EV sales rankings showing the Tesla Model 3 and the Tesla Model Y becoming two of the country’s best-selling electric cars.
Data aggregated by EVSalesBlog, a website that has been tracking electric vehicles’ sales figures across the globe for years, reveal that the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y are now making some serious waves in China’s electric vehicle sector. The Model 3 actually beat conventional best-sellers in the premium sedan segment, EV or otherwise, with the vehicle outselling the Audi A4, BMW 3-Series, and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class last month.
Tesla’s Model Y ramp in China is building momentum.
The #1 & #2 EVs sold in China last month were the $TSLA Model 3 & Model Y.
I’m excluding 17 horsepower death traps with no airbags and 75 miles of range that sell for ~$5K and take >6 hours to charge.
Source: EVSalesBlog pic.twitter.com/PZYp1Cf9mI
— James Stephenson (@ICannot_Enough) March 18, 2021
The Model Y may be new on the block and its numbers may not be on the level of its sedan sibling yet, but the all-electric crossover is already showing a lot of potential. During its first months of production, the Model Y already outsold some of its local competitors from formidable brands like NIO and Xpeng, companies that also compete in the premium EV segment.
Granted, the Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model Y are being outsold by the Wuling HongGuang Mini EV, GM’s uber-affordable electric car that’s priced at around $4,400. The Mini EV has led China’s electric car leaderboards for months, and it has outsold the Model 3 to a notable degree. However, a closer look at the Mini EV shows that the vehicle is actually not competing against the Model 3 and Model Y, regardless of what Tesla critics would suggest. This is because GM’s tiny electric car is competing in a far more modest market.
The Mini EV’s affordable price means that it’s a bare-bones vehicle fitted with a battery pack that ranges from 9.2 kWh to 13.8 kWh. It also has a curb weight that’s just above 1,400 lbs, as well as zero airbags. Together with its $4,400 price, the Mini EV’s small size and modest features make it more of a competitor against China’s healthy lineup of 2-3-wheeled vehicles, some of which are sold at the same price range as GM’s modest electric car.
Considering that the Mini EV is more of an inner-city vehicle that’s just a small step up from 2-3-wheeled alternatives, the country’s greater electric vehicle market seems ripe for domination. In this light, Tesla appears to be planting the right seeds with the Model 3 and Model Y, considering that the vehicles already outsell their local competition. What’s particularly exciting is that Tesla has a tendency to lower its vehicles’ prices over time, which suggests that the Model 3 and Model Y may be even more affordable in the future.
China’s EV leaderboards this year may see the $4,400 Wuling HongGuang Mini EV at the top for a while. But when it comes to the segment of serious vehicles that are truly capable of replacing the best internal combustion cars in every metric, the Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model Y seem poised to take the country’s top spots.
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Elon Musk
Tesla’s Elon Musk: 10 billion miles needed for safe Unsupervised FSD
As per the CEO, roughly 10 billion miles of training data are required due to reality’s “super long tail of complexity.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has provided an updated estimate for the training data needed to achieve truly safe unsupervised Full Self-Driving (FSD).
As per the CEO, roughly 10 billion miles of training data are required due to reality’s “super long tail of complexity.”
10 billion miles of training data
Musk comment came as a reply to Apple and Rivian alum Paul Beisel, who posted an analysis on X about the gap between tech demonstrations and real-world products. In his post, Beisel highlighted Tesla’s data-driven lead in autonomy, and he also argued that it would not be easy for rivals to become a legitimate competitor to FSD quickly.
“The notion that someone can ‘catch up’ to this problem primarily through simulation and limited on-road exposure strikes me as deeply naive. This is not a demo problem. It is a scale, data, and iteration problem— and Tesla is already far, far down that road while others are just getting started,” Beisel wrote.
Musk responded to Beisel’s post, stating that “Roughly 10 billion miles of training data is needed to achieve safe unsupervised self-driving. Reality has a super long tail of complexity.” This is quite interesting considering that in his Master Plan Part Deux, Elon Musk estimated that worldwide regulatory approval for autonomous driving would require around 6 billion miles.
FSD’s total training miles
As 2025 came to a close, Tesla community members observed that FSD was already nearing 7 billion miles driven, with over 2.5 billion miles being from inner city roads. The 7-billion-mile mark was passed just a few days later. This suggests that Tesla is likely the company today with the most training data for its autonomous driving program.
The difficulties of achieving autonomy were referenced by Elon Musk recently, when he commented on Nvidia’s Alpamayo program. As per Musk, “they will find that it’s easy to get to 99% and then super hard to solve the long tail of the distribution.” These sentiments were echoed by Tesla VP for AI software Ashok Elluswamy, who also noted on X that “the long tail is sooo long, that most people can’t grasp it.”
News
Tesla earns top honors at MotorTrend’s SDV Innovator Awards
MotorTrend’s SDV Awards were presented during CES 2026 in Las Vegas.
Tesla emerged as one of the most recognized automakers at MotorTrend’s 2026 Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) Innovator Awards.
As could be seen in a press release from the publication, two key Tesla employees were honored for their work on AI, autonomy, and vehicle software. MotorTrend’s SDV Awards were presented during CES 2026 in Las Vegas.
Tesla leaders and engineers recognized
The fourth annual SDV Innovator Awards celebrate pioneers and experts who are pushing the automotive industry deeper into software-driven development. Among the most notable honorees for this year was Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s Vice President of AI Software, who received a Pioneer Award for his role in advancing artificial intelligence and autonomy across the company’s vehicle lineup.
Tesla also secured recognition in the Expert category, with Lawson Fulton, a staff Autopilot machine learning engineer, honored for his contributions to Tesla’s driver-assistance and autonomous systems.
Tesla’s software-first strategy
While automakers like General Motors, Ford, and Rivian also received recognition, Tesla’s multiple awards stood out given the company’s outsized role in popularizing software-defined vehicles over the past decade. From frequent OTA updates to its data-driven approach to autonomy, Tesla has consistently treated vehicles as evolving software platforms rather than static products.
This has made Tesla’s vehicles very unique in their respective sectors, as they are arguably the only cars that objectively get better over time. This is especially true for vehicles that are loaded with the company’s Full Self-Driving system, which are getting progressively more intelligent and autonomous over time. The majority of Tesla’s updates to its vehicles are free as well, which is very much appreciated by customers worldwide.
Elon Musk
Judge clears path for Elon Musk’s OpenAI lawsuit to go before a jury
The decision maintains Musk’s claims that OpenAI’s shift toward a for-profit structure violated early assurances made to him as a co-founder.
A U.S. judge has ruled that Elon Musk’s lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its founding nonprofit mission can proceed to a jury trial.
The decision maintains Musk’s claims that OpenAI’s shift toward a for-profit structure violated early assurances made to him as a co-founder. These claims are directly opposed by OpenAI.
Judge says disputed facts warrant a trial
At a hearing in Oakland, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers stated that there was “plenty of evidence” suggesting that OpenAI leaders had promised that the organization’s original nonprofit structure would be maintained. She ruled that those disputed facts should be evaluated by a jury at a trial in March rather than decided by the court at this stage, as noted in a Reuters report.
Musk helped co-found OpenAI in 2015 but left the organization in 2018. In his lawsuit, he argued that he contributed roughly $38 million, or about 60% of OpenAI’s early funding, based on assurances that the company would remain a nonprofit dedicated to the public benefit. He is seeking unspecified monetary damages tied to what he describes as “ill-gotten gains.”
OpenAI, however, has repeatedly rejected Musk’s allegations. The company has stated that Musk’s claims were baseless and part of a pattern of harassment.
Rivalries and Microsoft ties
The case unfolds against the backdrop of intensifying competition in generative artificial intelligence. Musk now runs xAI, whose Grok chatbot competes directly with OpenAI’s flagship ChatGPT. OpenAI has argued that Musk is a frustrated commercial rival who is simply attempting to slow down a market leader.
The lawsuit also names Microsoft as a defendant, citing its multibillion-dollar partnerships with OpenAI. Microsoft has urged the court to dismiss the claims against it, arguing there is no evidence it aided or abetted any alleged misconduct. Lawyers for OpenAI have also pushed for the case to be thrown out, claiming that Musk failed to show sufficient factual basis for claims such as fraud and breach of contract.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers, however, declined to end the case at this stage, noting that a jury would also need to consider whether Musk filed the lawsuit within the applicable statute of limitations. Still, the dispute between Elon Musk and OpenAI is now headed for a high-profile jury trial in the coming months.
Tesla’s Elon Musk: 10 billion miles needed for safe Unsupervised FSD
Tesla earns top honors at MotorTrend’s SDV Innovator Awards
