The latest sales figures from China have been published and according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) Tesla sold 74,402 new Model 3 and Model Y cars in February. This is a wholesale figure and includes cars that were delivered domestically in China and also those that were exported to other markets.
Tesla’s February 2023 sales figure is a nearly 13% increase over January when 66,051 were sold, and an even larger 31.65% increase from last year when it sold 56,515 vehicles in February 2022. The breakdown between domestic and import sales should be released by the CPCA next week. Given that February is the second month of the quarter we should still see a fairly high number of exports as Tesla focuses on imports in the first half of a quarter before switching their efforts to domestic deliveries in the second half of each three month period.
This now puts Tesla at 140,453 sales from Giga Shanghai over the first two months of the year, a figure that is over 20% higher than at the same point last year. If they maintain this pace over the remaining 10 months of the year the Tesla China team will end 2023 with nearly 850,000 sales, which would exceed its 2022 total which stood at 710,865 units.
While it is an impressive increase over January, Tesla’s February sales figures are even more impressive when you consider February was only 28 days and the factory was also partially shut down during the month. The Model 3 production lines were reportedly shut down for several days in order for them to undergo some changes to accommodate the new Model 3 design that has been developed under Project Highland.
Another recent change to Giga Shanghai’s production lines was the addition of Comfort Suspension for the Model Y. This feature has been available in North America for several months but Tesla confirmed this week all Model Ys built at Giga Shanghai also have the upgraded suspension since the beginning of the year.
