By Michael Elkins
Data from China Merchants Bank International showed Tuesday that Tesla Inc's (NASDAQ:TSLA) sales in China rose last week but were still running short of the pace seen in the fourth quarter, indicating a bump from discounted prices in its biggest overseas market is waning.
According to the data, the electric vehicle maker nearly doubled weekly retail sales in the week of Feb. 20 to 10,703 vehicles versus a week prior.
The tally was the highest after that of the week of Jan. 9 when Tesla sold 12,654 Model 3 and Model Y cars after lowering prices by as much as 14% on Jan. 6. However, year-to-date average daily sales were 1,016 cars, whereas in October and November, the figure was 1,317, indicating that price cuts may not be enough to accelerate sales in the first quarter compared with the fourth.
“Sales are slowing in part due to an aging product line”, said Yale Zhang, managing director at Shanghai-based consultancy Automotive Foresight. “Consumers are also delaying purchases while waiting to see if other EV makers cut prices,” Zhang said.
Tesla's performance is in line with China's overall EV sector, which has suffered from the end of a more than decade-long government subsidy. Its share of the country's new energy vehicle market slightly declined to 9% from 10% a year earlier, according to CMBI data.
Meanwhile, the market share of BYD Co (OTC:BYDDF) surged to 37% from 27%. Smaller EV players such as Leapmotor (HK:9863) and Great Wall Motor Company's (OTC:GWLLY) Ora are among those whose market share shrank.