Tesla’s Oct China-made EV sales fall 2.6% from Sept

BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – U.S. automaker Tesla delivered 72,115 China-made electric vehicles in October, down 2.6% from a month earlier, the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said on Thursday.

Sales of China-made Model 3 and Model Y cars edged up 0.6% from a year earlier.

Chinese rival BYD, which makes EVs and hybrid models from its Dynasty and Ocean series, delivered 301,095 passenger vehicles in October, up 5% from September and a 38.4% increase from the same month last year.

Elon Musk’s Tesla has prioritised sales over earnings, particularly in China, where the U.S. EV giant has come under growing pressure from local rivals. Aggressive discounts have battered its margins but failed to boost its market share.

Tesla’s market share in China’s EV segment shrank to 9.89% in the third quarter from 12.98% in the second quarter and 9.93% a year earlier.

It missed third-quarter estimates for gross margin, profit and revenue. It also undershot third-quarter forecasts for its global deliveries, as planned factory upgrades for a revamped version of the Model 3 curbed production.

Tesla debuted the refreshed and higher-priced Model 3 in China in September and officially began deliveries on Oct. 26.

Domestic automakers have made more headway in the world’s largest auto market, where foreign brands including Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors and South Korea’s Hyundai Motor have taken steps to wind down or scale back on their operations.

BYD, Tesla’s biggest Chinese rival, secured its market leadership with a 22.12% gross margin in the third quarter.

Huawei-backed EV brand Aito has also made a splash lately, with its revamped M7 model garnering more than 50,000 orders within the first 25 days after it went on sale in mid-September.

(Reporting by Qiaoyi Li, Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Jamie Freed, Sonali Paul and William Mallard)