Beijing (ZXZC)- In the fourth month of 2023, Tesla sold 75,842 China-made vehicles in wholesale, representing an 14.66% drop over the previous month, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

Last month’s wholesale volume was not applicable to a year-on-year comparison due to the pandemic outburst in Shanghai in April 2022. 

In the past month, the US electric vehicle maker saw 35,886 Shanghai-made vehicles set sail overseas, which almost tripled from the previous month. 

In the first four months of this year, the cumulative wholesale volume of China-made Tesla vehicles summed up to 305,164 vehicles, 127,779 units of which were exported to overseas markets, accounting for roughly 41.87% of the total volume.

Model 3; photo credit: Tesla

Last month, China’s new energy passenger vehicle (NEPV) wholesale volume reached roughly 607,000 vehicles, which skyrocketed 115.6% year on year but edged down 1.7% over March. From January to April, there were a total of 2.108 million NEPVs sold via wholesale, jumping 43% from a year earlier.

In terms of April wholesale volume of specific passenger vehicle models, nine boasted a number exceeding 20,000 units with seven of them being NEPVs, which were the Tesla Model Y (49,059 units), the BYD Qin (42,202 units), the BYD Yuan (39,160 units), the BYD Song (35,836 units), the BYD Dolphin (30,462 units), the Tesla Model 3 (26,783 units), and the GAC AION Y (21,065 units). 

Judging from the overall monthly retail volume of NEPVs in China, Tesla secured 7.6% of the market in April 2023, climbing 7 percentage points year over year. At the same time, China’s locally-owned brands accounted for 70.5% of the entire NEPV market, notching down 5 percentage points from the previous year. The market share of new energy vehicle startups stood at 13.1% in the past month, slipping 3.9 percentage points compared to the year-ago period.

BYD's vehicle

Outside of China, a total of 91,000 NEPVs were exported by Chinese automakers last month, indicating a remarkable 1,028.5% soar year-on-year. According to the CPCA, NEPVs accounted for about 31% of the total passenger vehicle export volume in April. 

Specifically, the top three carmakers regarding export volume were Tesla China (35,886 units), SAIC Motor Passenger Vehicle Company (21,450 units), and BYD (14,827 units), with SAIC Motor’s wholly owned brands booming in the European markets while BYD going strong in Southeast Asia.