Despite a slight drop in both sales and production output for Tesla in China, the latest numbers coming out of the country are a good sign for the automaker.
In August 2020, the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) reported Tesla sold 11,800 made-in-China Model 3’s, a nearly 800 units increase from the previous month. The automaker produced 12,714 units during the same time period.
Fast forward a month, and the CPCA’s figures for September 2020 show a slight drop with 11,329 sales and 12,212 vehicles produced.
At first glance it may seem like a retraction for Tesla in September, but there is a catch. Starting on September 20 and continuing until the end of the month, Giga Shanghai was completely shut down for annual production line inspections and equipment upgrades.
That means Giga Shanghai in 20 days in September was able to almost match the output during the entire month of August. Taking an average daily figure for the first 20 days in September, Tesla would have produced more than 18,000 made-in-China Model 3’s, an all-time high.
When the October numbers are released next month by the CPCA, we are expecting to see a record quarter. Tesla earlier this month dropped the price of the Model 3, which resulted in a massive amount of orders in the following the announcement.
| Month | Sales |
|---|---|
| January | 2,620 |
| February | 3,900 |
| March | 10,160 |
| April | 3,635 |
| May | 11,095 |
| June | 14,954 |
| July | 11,014 |
| August | 11,800 |
| September | 11,329 |
| October | 12,143 |
| November | 21,604 |
| December | 23,804 |
| TOTAL | 138,058 |
Source: InsideEVs via Moneyball
