Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory recorded its strongest monthly deliveries of the year in May as a broader recovery in China’s electric vehicle market gathered pace, although the US carmaker is likely to face intensifying competition from domestic rivals launching a wave of new models. The factory in Shanghai’s Lingang free-trade zone delivered 85,982 Model 3 and Model Y vehicles last month, up 39.4 per cent from a year earlier and 8.2 per cent from April, according to Tesla China. The figure...
Chinese electric vehicle (EV) makers are speeding up their pivot to the premium segment, where they hope to secure higher profit margins and dodge the cutthroat market’s most vicious price competition. New models launched by carmakers including Nio and Seres also mount a challenge to Tesla’s bestselling Model Y in the world’s largest EV market. “Intensified efforts to gain ascendancy in the premium segment show the carmakers’ confidence in their technologies,” said Chen Jinzhu, CEO of...
Tesla announced the roll-out of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) system in China, a week after its founder and CEO, US billionaire Elon Musk, visited the country as part of a tour led by President Donald Trump. The arrival of the system will raise the self-driving game in a market where Level 3 (L3) automated driving has been legalised. “FSD Supervised” was now available in China and nine other countries including the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and the Netherlands, the...
Tesla China has launched a new financing scheme to attract more budget-conscious buyers after its sales in the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) market fell behind its domestic rivals. The US carmaker said on Wednesday that the down payment for a Shanghai-made Model 3 vehicle – priced at 235,500 yuan (US$34,672) – would be slashed to 55,900 yuan from 79,900 yuan if the buyer chose a five-year car loan offered by Tesla. “Our strong products, combined with attractive incentives for car...
When US President Donald Trump’s delegation touches down in Beijing on Wednesday night, he looks to be flanked by a cadre of corporate executives, headlined by a man seen by much of the Chinese public as the most familiar American entrepreneur of his generation: Elon Musk. The Tesla and SpaceX chief’s presence alongside Trump for meetings with President Xi Jinping adds a distinctive commercial and personal layer to a diplomatically delicate trip. “Musk’s inclusion in Trump’s China delegation has...