In July, SHANGHAI Tesla sold 28,217 Chinese-made vehicles, nearly two-thirds less than a month earlier, as a scheduled upgrade to its factory lines in Shanghai disrupted production.
The China Passenger Car Association CPCA said that the US carmaker imported 19,756 Model 3 s and Model Ys from China last month. In June, it sold 78,906 vehicles and exported 968.
At the beginning of the quarter, Tesla China usually exports more cars while focusing more on domestic sales at the end of the quarter.
In July of this year, Tesla suspended most of its production at the Shanghai plant due to an upgrade that aims to bring the factory's weekly output to around 22,000 units compared to levels of around 17,000 in June, according to internal memos seen by Reuters.
The production ramp-up at Tesla's most productive manufacturing hub comes after production losses during a two-month COVID lockdown in Shanghai hurt the company's profit margin in the second quarter.
China's passenger car sales rose 20.1 per cent from a year ago to 1.84 million, the CPCA said.
Sales of plug-in hybrids were more than doubled in July and accounted for 26.4 percent of the total in July, with sales of electric cars accounting for 26.4 per cent of the total in July.
The association believes that electric car sales for the whole year could reach 6 million units, higher than the earlier estimate of 5.5 million.
In July, BYD led the EV players with 163,042 cars delivered, with plug-in hybrids accounting for more than half of its sales.
In July, sales of conventional hybrid cars increased by 81 per cent compared to a year ago, with Japan's Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co Ltd leading the segment.