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Tesla reduces Model Y production in Shanghai, data shows
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Tesla has reduced production of its best-selling electric car, Model Y, by a double-digit percentage at its Shanghai factory since March, according to industry data and a source.
The move aims to address weakening demand for the US automaker’s older model in China, its second-largest market, where most of the cars produced at the Shanghai factory are sold and where a brutal price war has erupted between manufacturers. of electric vehicles in the midst of an economic crisis. slow down.
The Shanghai factory, Tesla’s biggest manufacturing hub in the world, planned to cut Model Y production by at least 20% during the March-June period, said the person, who declined to be identified because the matter is private.
Data from the Chinese Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) showed that Model Y production in China was 49,498 units in March and 36,610 in April, 17.7% and 33% lower, respectively, compared with the previous year.
In total, Tesla produced 287,359 units of Model Y and Model 3 cars in China in the first four months, down 5% from the same period in 2023, with Model 3 production 10% higher, CAAM data showed.
It was not immediately clear whether the production cut would be extended to the second half of this year or to the Model 3 and whether Tesla’s factories in the United States and Germany have also adopted similar production cuts.
Tesla did not respond to requests for comment.
Tesla left out its goal of delivering 20 million vehicles a year by 2030 in its latest impact report published on Thursday, another sign that the company was moving away from electric cars as it shifts focus to robotaxis . The company has been accelerating its pivot to betting on a breakthrough in artificial intelligence to bring new revenue growth.
Despite production cuts and recent layoffs in Tesla’s sales and charging services teams in China, the company still aims to sell 600,000 to 700,000 cars in China in 2024, out of the 2 million EVs it aims to sell globally, unchanged from goals at the beginning of the year. year, a separate source said. The source declined to be identified as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Tesla in April cut Model Y prices in China to the lowest levels since the model was first launched in the country in 2021, while also offering a zero-interest financing scheme to Model 3 buyers to boost The sales.
Tesla’s share of China’s overall pure electric and plug-in hybrid market fell to 6.8% in the first four months of this year, from 7.8% in all of 2023, when it sold 603,664 cars in the country, from according to the China Passenger Car Association. .
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Local BYD led the segment in China with a 34.3% share in the first four months, down from 35% for all of 2023.
(Reporting by Zhang Yan and Casey Hall; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)