Report: Musk trims Telsa’s China EV expectations to 5,000 units this year
26 January 2016
The Nikkei Asian Review reported that Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk said that the company has trimmed its China EV sales target for this year to 5,000 units, down from last year’s target of 10,000. Tesla has reported that it had sold 3,025 cars in China through the first nine months of 2015.
Nevertheless, Tesla’s Q3 2015 results were its strongest yet in China: 1,345 Model S vehicles, 11% of Tesla’s global deliveries.
However, China-based BYD delivered 5,749 new energy vehicles in country in September 2015 alone—a threefold year-on-year increase. Globally, BYD sold 61,722 plug-ins last year, the majority of which were in China. BYD's passenger vehicle sales are made in China. Tesla said it delivered 50,557 vehicles worldwide in 2015.
The report quoted Musk as saying at a Hong Kong event:
We are still doing reasonably well in mainland China, but we do face quite [a] high import duty, and we do not yet have access to local incentives. The obstacle for our cars in mainland China is much greater than it would be, actually, anywhere in the world.
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