BEIJING (Reuters) -Tesla’s China-made electric vehicle sales dropped 4% in August from a year earlier, following an 8.4% fall in July, as the U.S. automaker refreshed its aging lineup in China’s hyper-competitive market.
However, deliveries of Model 3 and Model Y vehicles made at Tesla’s Shanghai factory, including exports to Europe and other markets, surged 22.6% from July to 83,192 units last month, data from the China Passenger Car Association showed on Tuesday.
Top Chinese rival BYD extended a sales decline in its home market, which accounts for nearly 80% of its global shipments, for a fourth straight month in August.
Amid intense competition and a backlash against Elon Musk’s politics, Tesla’s sales across Europe plunged 40.2% in July on the year and trailed BYD, despite an overall EV sales rise in the continent.
In China, Tesla’s second-largest market after the U.S. in the second quarter in sales terms, the EV specialist launched a refreshed version of its best-selling Model Y in January. But its China sales performance has been rocky this year, recording lower deliveries in the first seven months versus last year.
To fire up sales, Tesla lowered the price for Model 3 rear-wheel drive with a range of 830 kilometres (516 miles) by 3.7% in China on Monday, less than a month after its China launch.
It began first deliveries of its new six-seater Model Y L with a starting price of 339,000 yuan on Tuesday.
The new SUV with a longer wheelbase than its best-selling Model Y is 2.7% more expensive than the highest-end version of Xiaomi’s YU7 SUV.
Garnering over 240,000 locked-in orders in less than a day after the YU7 went on sale in late June, Xiaomi’s first SUV is seen as the biggest challenger to the Model Y after its SU7 sedan outsold the Model 3 in China on a monthly basis since December.
(Reporting by Qiaoyi Li, Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Susan Fenton and Bernadette Baum)
