Tesla China Shipments Halve in February, Compounding Slow Start

Tesla Inc. suffered another big drop in its China wholesales in February, as BYD Co. pulled further ahead in the world’s biggest electric-vehicle market.

The U.S. carmaker led by Elon Musk saw shipments plunge 49% from a year earlier to 30,688 vehicles, according to preliminary data that China’s Passenger Car Association released late March 4.

That was also well down from the 63,238 units Tesla shipped from its Shanghai factory in January — already a slow month due to the Lunar New Year holiday.

Tesla’s weakening numbers in China, the world’s biggest auto market, are in stark contrast to BYD, which sold more than 318,000 pure electric and hybrid passenger vehicles last month, up 161% year-on-year. Whereas sales reflect consumer activity at the retail level, wholesales more closely align with the number of cars rolling off production lines.

Tesla is coming off a tough 2024 in China. The company recorded its first-ever drop in annual shipments from its Shanghai plant since the facility started mass production in 2020, a sign of intensifying local competition and lukewarm global demand.

Worldwide, Tesla sold 1.79 million EVs last year, slightly less than it delivered in 2023, and also below analysts’ consensus estimate. BYD, which stopped making vehicles powered entirely by fossil fuels in 2022, sold 1.76 million battery-powered cars. Including hybrids, BYD sold 4.25 million passenger vehicles.

PCA estimated that overall wholesales of new-energy vehicles in China soared 82…