Tesla Just Got Absolutely Horrible News About Its Sales in China

If "failure is the mother of success," as the old Chinese proverb goes, then Tesla is long overdue for some wins.

Once thought to be something of a golden goose for Tesla thanks to ultra-friendly EV policies, Chinese drivers are now avoiding Teslas like the plague. In February, Tesla's sales in China dropped a whopping 49.2 percent compared to the previous year, contributing to a 28.7 percent sales plummet over the last 12 months.

Though some have noted the slump corresponds with the Lunar New Year — typically a slow time for Chinese consumer sales — Tesla's Chinese competitor BYD notched a whopping 90.4 percent increase in sales over the same month. In short: it's not looking great for Tesla.

The numbers are both yet another knock for Tesla's growing sales woes due to Elon Musk's political meddling, and an indication of the rabidly competitive corporate market in China — a commercial environment some argue is more truly capitalist than America's.

One major factor: the sheer volume of tech companies in China eking out any edge they can get as sometimes hundreds of fledgling businesses nip at their heels. Rather than shying away from imitation, Chinese companies proudly undermine similar business ventures with tactics like reverse engineering, aggressive product-first marketing, and price undercutting.

One prominent example on the world stage lately has been Chinese AI startup DeepSeek — a now-famous software company making waves for its streamlined approach to LLM development.

Contrast that to the US, where a handful of tech monopolies have been propped up by generous government handouts in order to ensure delivery of lethal military hardware, cheap consumer goods, and an American-dominated global information space.

In the Chinese EV world, where over 200 EV manufacturers battle it out for mere morsels of the overall market — some backed by Beijing and Wall Street at the same time — that means Tesla must adjust to the breakneck pace of the country's innovation.

So far, Musk's cash cow is falling way short of those expectations. In January, the company recalled over one million EVs in China due to dangerous software issues across four different Tesla models. Earlier in 2024, the EV giant was forced to recall over 1.5 million Chinese EVs due to issues with a faulty trunk latch that could pop open while driving.

In February, it was reported that the rollout of Musk's long-promised Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature in China would be delayed indefinitely by Beijing lawmakers, becoming something of a bargaining chip in Donald Trump's escalating trade war. The Chinese government later reversed course, allowing Tesla to start rolling out FSD in late February. That has also been a disaster, with Chinese Tesla drivers racking up fines thanks to the software's faulty training on China's roads.

It may be just as well, as less than 10 percent of Chinese Teslas are said to be eligible for the costly feature. Meanwhile, some Chinese EV companies have already rolled out FSD capabilities to the vast majority of users at no additional cost.

Though this doesn't spell the end of Tesla's EV dominance just yet, it's nonetheless another major headache for the company's stakeholders to nurse as they mull whether Musk's risk is worth the reward.

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