Tesla sales crisis spreads to China as GigaShanghai plant volumes in April shrink for 7th straight month to lowest level in years
- The wholesale vehicle shipments of the Tesla Chinese factory fell 6% compared to the previous Aprilmarking the seventh consecutive decrease in annual shift. The nearly 58,500 cars sold at home and abroad are the lowest number on the whole since 2022, when the factory has struggled to operate at a complete pace in the middle of locking at the city scale after an omicron epidemic of Covid.
Tesla’s apparent reluctance to develop new EV models that can extend the brand to new segments on the world automotive market, including compact cars, comes back to haunt it.
Wednesday, China's Passenger because Association (CPCA) reported numbers This showed that Tesla sent 58,459 models of model 3 and model Y models from its Gigashanghai factory last month.
It is 6% less than thePrevious Aprilwhich had the same number of working days and represents the seventh consecutive monthly decrease from one year to the next. It is also the lowest number in all of the whole since 2022, when the factory had trouble operating at a complete pace in the middle of locking on the scale of the city after an epidemic of Omicron of Covid.
Consequently, Tesla's Shanghai operations have slipped fourth in the national ranking of the largest manufacturers of electric vehicles and rechargeable hybrids – or “new energy vehicles” in the China plot – now behind Geely and Saic -GM -Wuling as well as the market leader byd.
$ Tsla 🇨🇳
– tsla chan (@tslachan) May 7, 2025
News: Tesla China recorded 58,459 by wholesale in April.
Wholesale = Retail + Export pic.twitter.com/tp0ssc5grr
“Tesla's hopes for a sustained rebound in China has been blurred since competition becomes fiercesaidTHEMorning post in southern China. “Its Chinese rivals, depending on their new models and their aggressive pricing strategies, have attracted more consumers.”
EV Tesla's demand drops quickly, especially in Europe
Tesla is in no way the only Western enterprise faced with difficulties in the brutally competitive nev cars in China, which is now completely dominated by local brands. But it is the only one is worth more than the 10 largest combined car manufacturers.
As a rule, the first month of each quarter sees Shanghai reserved from the whole third to half of its export volume. Since large figures include cars manufactured both for national and foreign markets like Australia, the continuous drop in the signal a wider weakness of Tesla's demand.
$ Tsla China posted 7.3K insurance recordings for the week from April 28 to May 4. Given the holidays in China from May 1 to 5, Tsla Giga Shanghai was only opened 3 working days last week. After five weeks, 2q is -9.1% QOQ and -14.5% in annual shift.
– Gary Black (@ garyblack00) May 7, 2025
In addition, the CPCA reported Tesla Shanghai… pic.twitter.com/bl0crownww
The CPCA has not yet provided an exact split, the data that occurs later in the month, but the weekly insurance figures from China indicate that Tesla national sales during the quarter are 15% lower so far.
This comes in addition to recent data that shows that demand for its cars across Europe crashed 37% in the first trimester And continued to fall in April.
Musk puts all his eggs in 2 baskets – Cybercab and Optimus
This could have been attributed to the change of model Y into a more recent version, which can slow down the mounting lines as the folds are developed. The leaders said that on the results of the first quarter of Tesla at the end of last month, however, that the four factories are already able to manufacture the new model y at the same rate as the old.
This suggests that the deeper problem is that Musk failed to invest in new cars. Rather, it was categorical, Tesla does not need to copy car manufacturers by developing different models for different segments, a choice he compared to Nokia offering flip phones of different sizes. Instead, Tesla just needs one or two killer products that dominate the market: for Musk, it's Cybercab Robotaxi and Optimus Robot.
To strengthen the trap demand in China until this duo can be launched, Tesla is preparing a new automotive version at a lower cost, according to local media reports. Other unconfirmed speculations focus on the possibility that Tesla could prepare a so-called mini and maximum version of the Y, the latter entirely capable of offering seven seats to accommodate parents, grandparents and children.
Fork on the road for the attractive assessment of Tesla
In any case, Tesla's evaluation seems to be at a fork on the road to take a favorite musk metaphor.
Investors are currently willing to pay almost 100 times more for next year's profits based on consensual estimates generally indicates that the company is ready for explosive growth. This multiple disproportionate is based on the conviction that the high challenges of Musk are betting on “real world”, robotics and autonomous fleets of driving, will be chargeable.
Whether Tesla Vende 410K, 440K or 470K of cars in the second quarter has no difference in the context of an MCAP company of $ 0.9T.
– AJ (@alojoh) May 5, 2025
It is also a little ridiculous to obsessive about car sales, just as the Robotaxis are about to get started.
It's like being obsessed with iPod sales after work …
Bears says that EV sales figures such as those in China or Europe prove that he has terribly neglected his basic car business and ransacked the brand of his business. They doubt that his efforts of AI will be able to justify the type of evaluation of which other magnificent seven actions can only dream.
The bulls believing that the company is worth more than its current market value of $ 900 billion, in the meantime, shortly for the EV activity, believing that its cars are the equivalent of Tesla at the iPod – a product which has ultimately become obsolete once Apple launched the iPhone.
AI and robotics now represent the fall of linchpin in the history of Musk's actions.
This story was initially presented on Fortune.com
