A pedestrian passes in front of a Tesla store in Shanghai, China, on March 14, 2024.
Cost Photo | Null Photo | Getty Images
Sales of Tesla’s Chinese-made electric vehicles rose nearly 40% in May on the back of a broad recovery in the country’s EV market.
In May, the company delivered 85,982 new energy vehicle units from its Shanghai Gigafactory, which produces Model 3 and Model Y units for China and several overseas markets, according to preliminary data released by the China Passenger Car Association on Tuesday. This represents a 39.4% year-on-year increase when compared to the same period in 2025.
According to the CPCA report, a total of 1.36 million passenger EVs were sold across China’s domestic EV manufacturers in May, an increase of 12% year-on-year and an 11% increase over April’s total. The CPCA said these numbers indicate an “initial recovery” in China’s EV market, as sales of several other Chinese EV carmakers increased modestly in the same month.
tesla rival BYD The company put an end to eight consecutive months of sales decline in May, with deliveries of new energy passenger vehicles (a category that includes both battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) reaching 376,990 units, an increase of 0.02% compared to May last year’s deliveries of 376,930 units.
Numbers supported by Stellantis leap motor and Geely’s Zeekr both soared more than 80% in May. Nio posted a 62.3% year-over-year increase after releasing its first flagship EV in more than two years.
Xiaomi reported that its EV deliveries in May exceeded 30,000 units, an increase of 7.1% year-on-year. The tech giant has launched the YU7 GT SUV, a performance-focused version of the popular YU7 SUV. It reportedly set a lap record at Germany’s Nurburgring racetrack, making it the fastest production SUV.
A small number of Chinese automakers also reported year-on-year sales declines, with Li Automobile’s sales declining by 18.4% and XPeng’s by 4.1%.
FSD problem
However, it is unclear whether Tesla’s FSD (supervised) feature is already available to mainstream Chinese consumers.
On May 29, local media outlet Beijing News reported that Tesla is facing a lawsuit from a group of 10 Chinese car owners for falsely claiming that its FSD (supervised) feature was available in China, despite not having received approval from Chinese regulators.
Tesla did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
—CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to this report.
