Tesla Records High Sales In China Despite Coronavirus Pandemic

Happy days are finally returning to the automobile world as Tesla has recorded positive sales improvement despite the coronavirus pandemic. While other Chinese markets are crippled, it is surprising that the electric car company is on top now.

Data from automotive consultancy LMC Automotive shows that Tesla’s number of car registrations in March jumped 450 per cent month on month. It rose from 2,314 in February to 12,709 registrations in March. However, to put that number in context, we need to mention that China’s overall car sales in February 2020 plunged by 79% to around 310,000 units from nearly 1.5 million the same month last year.

Sales across the Chinese car industry as a whole dropped by 43.4 per cent in March 2020 to 1.43 million units from 2.52 million a year earlier according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. On the bright side, that’s a 355% increase month to month. In March, Tesla registered 12,709 vehicles and out of that figure, a whopping 10,106 units were sold.

Like all other automobile manufacturers, Tesla shut down its recently-opened Gigafactory in Shanghai for a few weeks. This happened between the end of January and February due to the virus. They resumed operations at the facility in the second week of February.

The news of the sales records comes in a time when Tesla has decided to start producing some long-range models. These models include the Model 3 Long Range RWD and Model 3 Performance models. The factory will also build the Model 3 Standard Range Plus RWD. By manufacturing these variants, local Chinese buys will save a lot of cash. They won’t need to buy imported models that are built at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California.

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