Tesla China Sales Hit 3-Year Low

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Nov 11, 9:15AM EST

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Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) sales in China have fallen to their lowest in three years.
Yet, poor sales there and in other global markets have not hurt Tesla stock.

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Tesla China Sales Hit 3-Year Low — © RoschetzkyIstockPhoto / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) sales in China dropped to 26,006 in October, the lowest total in three years. That is down almost 38% from the same period of last year.

There was a silver lining for Tesla. The China Passenger Car Association reported that exports of Tesla’s China-made cars rose to a two-year high of 35,491.

Tesla’s market share in China slipped to 3.2%, also a three-year low. Its competition has grown rapidly, led by Chinese giant BYD. By some estimates, there are 100 electric vehicle (EV) companies in China, many of which will not survive. In the meantime, the brutal competition has created a price war.

Tesla already has problems in the world’s two other largest car markets. In most months this year, EU registrations (the way the European Union measures sales) have declined by high double-digit percentages in some nations. Local companies, including Volkswagen, the EU’s largest car manufacturer, have gained EV sales. Tesla’s trouble may be due in part to CEO Elon Musk offering opinions about local elections.

Tesla also faces a U.S. problem. In the third quarter of this year, its EV market share fell to less than 45%. That was down from 80% at its peak, according to some estimates.

Just like in Europe, legacy car companies, including Ford and GM, have added market share.

Yet, poor sales across the three large global markets have not hurt Tesla shares. They are up almost 250% in the past five years. Its market cap of $1.5 trillion makes it the world’s 10th most valuable company.

Musk has convinced investors to overlook poor sales. He claims that Tesla is no longer primarily a car company, but rather an artificial intelligence and robotics company. Based on his robot and robotaxi plans, this should soon be clear.

Tesla Stock Price Prediction and Forecast 2025–2030

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.