Tesla’s domestic sales in China collapsed 45% year-over-year in January, falling to just 18,485 units — the automaker’s lowest monthly retail figure in the country since November 2022. The data, released today by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), paints a grim picture of Tesla’s demand in the world’s largest EV market.
The figure represents an 80% plunge from December’s record-high 93,843 domestic deliveries. While seasonal declines between December and January are normal in China, a 45% year-over-year drop is not.
Tbh I’m more surprised that their market share hasn’t dropped more, considering the much higher quality:price ratio that Chinese EVs have these days
Tesla out spends them on marketing. And Chinese consumers continue to be as big a bunch of suckers for the All American Status Symbol as everyone else in the world.
Still won’t save them from other luxury EVs flooding the market. Or the repeated bad press they get when their shitty vehicles malfunction.
But you can carry a lot of water just by blasting people’s eyeballs with marketing material.
“All American status symbol”. You mean a sign of trash built by prison labour.
I get European as a status symbol but thinking any American products as a show of wealth and class baffles me. Maybe I’m just old, but I associate American goods with ruggedness, cool, or cheap.
I get European as a status symbol
All comes down to marketing. You think European products are a status symbol because LVMH spends enormous sums to convince you of their quality. American firms do the same thing in China.
I associate American goods with ruggedness, cool, or cheap.
Speaks to your media consumption habits. I’ve always associated American goods with hip hop and street art. But I’m also bombarded with images of kids in track suits and giant hair doing kick-flips while downing soda. Or bohemian-types rolling up to a drive through in a top-down convertible while belting out pop music.
But it’s all just image. None of it is material.
Sure, but seeing a bunch of better and cheaper (for them) domestic models on the road means that the ads are rapidly decreasing in effectiveness.
Let’s hope
and bunch of stupid gadgets in a shit car. OK.
What $37,000 heavily subsidized car gets you in China.
Unlike Tesla in the US …?
So ford EVs will also be super cheap?
stonk go up?
First, there’s the pull-forward effect. December 2025 was Tesla’s best-ever retail month in China at 93,843 units, as buyers rushed to purchase before the reinstatement of a 5% purchase tax on NEVs starting January 1, 2026. That tax had been fully exempted for over a decade. Some of January’s weakness is borrowed December strength.
Second, China’s vehicle trade-in subsidies expired in most cities in mid-November and remain in a transitional phase, dampening demand broadly.
Third, the broader NEV market was weak. China’s total passenger NEV retail sales fell 20% year-over-year in January to 596,000 units, according to CPCA estimates. Even BYD saw its NEV sales drop 30% year-over-year and 50% month-over-month.
But here’s the thing: even BYD’s weak month produced 210,051 units. Tesla’s 18,485 is a different universe.
The higher the industry-volatility, the less-sense it makes to BUILD, & the more-sense it makes to SUBCONTRACT.
“Buy, don’t Build” startup-maxim, GENERALIZED 1 degree.
( :
_ /\ _
