Tesla’s business in China is on its longest winning streak in years. Sales of the electric cars it builds at its Shanghai factory rose 37.8 percent in July from a year earlier, the ninth month in a row of growth, according to figures from the China Passenger Car Association. For a company under pressure almost everywhere else, a steady climb in the world’s largest car market is a rare piece of good news.
The Shanghai plant, which builds the Model 3 and Model Y for China and for export, shipped 93,579 of them in July, up about 5 percent from June and the highest monthly total Tesla has posted in China all year. It was also its strongest July on record there. The plant doubles as Tesla’s export hub, sending cars to Europe and other markets, so the figure reflects both Chinese demand and shipments abroad.
The picture outside China is far less tidy. Across Europe, Tesla’s July registrations were mixed, with gains in France and Denmark offset by sharp drops in Norway and Sweden, even as the wider European EV market recovered. The China streak is real, but it runs against a global backdrop where Tesla’s sales have been uneven and, in several markets, falling.
The bigger shadow is homegrown competition. BYD, which has overtaken Tesla as the world’s top EV seller, posted higher global sales for a third straight month in July, helped by strong exports, including into the same European markets where Tesla is slipping. China’s domestic EV makers have turned the country into the most crowded and price competitive car market on the planet, and holding share there, let alone growing it, is not easy.
So the ninth straight month of growth cuts two ways. It shows Tesla can still compete hard in the market that matters most, with fresh models and aggressive pricing keeping its Shanghai lines busy. It also shows how much the company now leans on China at a moment when its other big markets look shaky and its next act, autonomy and the Cybercab, is still finding its feet. For now, Shanghai is doing the heavy lifting.