Tesla Makes China Comeback

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Feb 5, 9:15AM EST

24/7 Wall St. Key Points

An expected decline in Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) sales in China has not come about.
That may not mean much to CEO Elon Musk as he shifts Tesla away from vehicle production.

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Tesla Makes China Comeback — © MikeMareen / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

U.S. data shows that Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) sales declined last year. ACEA data showed double-digit declines in most European Union member states in 2025. There has been anxiety that Tesla sales would also decline in China, which is the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) market. That has not happened.

In November, in the United States, Tesla’s sales declined to a nearly four-year low, and its market share fell below 50%. Companies such as General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) and Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) gained enough ground to erode that market share. In the EU last year, Tesla’s sales declined 37.9% to 150,504 units.

According to Bloomberg, Tesla’s China sales have been strong for three months. The news service reported, “Tesla Inc.’s China shipments in January increased 9% from a year earlier, bucking the rocky start that many local electric vehicle makers had in 2026, including top rival BYD Co., which saw sales slip by almost a third.”

The recovery in China, while important on paper, may not mean much to CEO Elon Musk. He has stated that Tesla is transitioning into an artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics company. He has asked investors to view the company that way. Yahoo reports that Musk ended production of the Model S and Model X because, to some extent, they did not sell well. He also wants to convert factories to produce his Optimus robot.

To date, Musk’s plans have been well received by investors. The company’s stock is up 10% in the past year. However, it trails the S&P 500, which is up 15%. Nevertheless, Tesla is the world’s ninth most valuable company with a market cap of $1.58 trillion.

Tesla’s performance in the world’s largest EV market may not matter much anymore.

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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.