Tesla’s China-made EV sales rise 32% in Feb.

SHANGHAI — Tesla sold 74,402 China-made electric vehicles in February, up 32 percent from a year earlier, China Passenger Car Association data showed on Friday.

That was up 13 percent from January, when the U.S. electric carmaker delivered 66,051 China-made Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.

Rival BYD with its Dynasty and Ocean series of EVs and hybrids generated sales of 191,664 last month, CPCA data showed.

Tesla had planned to run its Shanghai plant at an average weekly output rate of 20,000 units in February and March after price cuts it made in early January stoked demand.

But the latest weekly data showed its retail sales in China were still running short of the pace seen in the fourth quarter, indicating the bump from discounted prices in its biggest overseas market is waning.
 

Tesla’s market share in China’s new energy vehicle sector, which includes both pure electric and plug-in hybrid cars, slid to 9 percent in February from 10 percent a year earlier, according to data from China Merchants Bank International.

BYD’s market share increased to 37 percent from 27 percent.

As competition intensifies, Tesla aims to increase exports and expand into new markets to  leverage output from the Shanghai factory.

It has started delivering cars to Thailand and set up its first Supercharger station there in February.