Tesla Is Flailing in China and BYD's Rapid Rise Is to Blame

On average, a Tesla costs $33,500; BYD's most expensive EV costs $21,000

- BLOOMBERG

It's almost unthinkable, but Tesla, the firm that comes to mind when most people think about electric vehicles, may have had its best days in China, the world's biggest and most advanced EV market.

Elon Musk's automaker has been backsliding in China for the past five consecutive months on a year-on-year basis, according to data from the country's Passenger Car Association. Tesla's shipments plunged 49 percent in February from a year earlier to just 30,688 vehicles, the lowest monthly figure since way back in July 2022, when it shipped just 28,217 EVs—and that was during Covid.

Tesla's factory on the outskirts of Shanghai has had some of its production lines retooled for efficiency and to relaunch the popular Model Y, so it's to be expected both that output dropped and will take some time to ramp back up. But even before that, the trend was heading in the wrong direction.