China Sales Are Evidence of Tesla Recovery

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Oct 10, 6:50AM EDT

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Third-quarter sales at Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) disappointed investors.
However, the EV giant’s sales in China were impressive in September.
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Third-quarter sales at Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) disappointed investors. The electric vehicle (EV) giant produced 470,000 vehicles and delivered 463,000 worldwide. Investors worry about the erosion of Tesla’s share of the U.S. EV market, which recently dropped below 50% for the first time. There is also concern that in China, the world’s largest EV market, Tesla sales may be knocked down by local EV companies led by BYD.

Tesla’s sales in China for September were impressive. They rose 19.2% over the same month last year. The China Passenger Car Association released the figures.

According to Reuters, September sales lifted Tesla’s Chinese third-quarter numbers. The news service reports that they rose 12% compared to the same quarter last year. Sales fell in the first two quarters compared to 2023 figures. Some of the recent improvements may be based on aggressive incentives.

Tesla needs Chinese sales to do extremely well. EV sales growth in the United States has nearly flattened. In Europe, in some months this year, EV sales have dropped. That fall-off is in the double-digit percentages in Germany. China offers an advantage to most EV companies. EV adoption in the world’s largest country by population has been brisk.

While the Chinese growth should hearten investors, Tesla’s near-term success will be determined by its new robotaxi, which is about to be launched. It is rumored to be the world’s first truly self-driving vehicle. It will not require the driver to monitor the road at all.

Sales in China may be good news, but not good enough.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.