BEIJING, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Tesla’s China-made electric vehicle sales rose for a third-straight month in January, even as China’s EV sales and exports were slow amid weak domestic demand.
Deliveries of Model 3 and Model Y vehicles made at Tesla’s Shanghai plant, including exports to Europe and other markets, were up 9.3% from a year-ago period, extending gains for a third consecutive month, data from the China Passenger Car Association showed on Wednesday.
For the whole of 2025, its China-made EV sales slid 7.1% as the U.S. automaker grappled with declining sales in major European markets while its share of China’s fiercely competitive EV market fell to 8% from 10% in 2024.
Musk expects Europe and China to approve its driver-supervised Full Self-Driving system as early as this month, as Tesla looks to increase software revenue amid a slowdown in its core EV business.
The whole sector was faring poorly though, with China’s EV sales and exports estimated to grow by 1% year-on-year last month, down sharply from a combined 25% rise in 2025, per CPCA data.
The front-loading of car purchases at the end of last year weighed on January domestic sales, which was offset nonetheless by exports, the association said.
BYD, which is Tesla’s biggest Chinese competitor, reported a 30% decline in global sales in January, as a revised government scheme of subsidising auto trade-ins weighed on budget car brands.
Some automakers still managed to post record January EV sales and exports, including Geely, Seres and Leapmotor.
To woo consumers amid stagnant demand, at least 10 car brands including Xiaomi, Xpeng and Dongfeng Nissan have rolled out longer-term financing plans after Tesla made a first-of-its-kind seven-year offer to customers in China.
(Reporting by Qiaoyi Li, Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Christopher Cushing, Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Sharon Singleton)
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