Source: Tesla

According to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), Tesla’s wholesale sales from Shanghai Giga in May fell 15% year-over-year to 61,662 units.

This figure includes both domestic sales (retail) and exports of Model 3 and Model Y vehicles produced at its Shanghai Gigafactory.

This marks the eighth consecutive month of year-over-year sales decline for Tesla in the world's largest automotive market.

However, domestic deliveries of Model 3/Y saw a slight month-over-month increase of 5.5% compared to April.

The launch of the Model Y facelift “Juniper” has not had the impact Tesla hoped and is bracing for even more competition coming from the phone maker Xiaomi, who has recently unveiled its first electric SUV model, the YU7.

Source: Xiaomi

The story this year is fairly similar across other major markets, including Europe.

In Norway, Tesla has already started delivering the refreshed Model Y and will gradually roll out deliveries of the new model to more European countries starting in June.

A Tesla UK spokesperson indicated that deliveries of the refreshed Model Y are set to begin locally in June, which is expected to bolster sales.

In the UK, Europe's largest EV market, Tesla's May sales plunged over 45% year-over-year, sharply contrasting with the industry's overall 28% increase.

The German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) reported on Wednesday that Tesla's May sales plummeted 36.2% year-over-year to just 1,210 units, despite the overall domestic pure EV market growing by 44.9%.

In contrast, BYD's sales surged almost ninefold year-over-year to 1,857 units.

Many consumers are switching to other brands due to the more attractive pricing of Chinese electric vehicles or dissatisfaction with Musk's political actions

In China, domestic automakers, particularly BYD, continue to report impressive passenger vehicle sales growth of 14.1% year-over-year to 376,930 units in May.

The current Chinese EV market is in a heated price war, with over 40 brands participating. Although Tesla was the first to implement significant price cuts since 2023, it still faces the challenge of local competitors offering high-performance products at even lower prices.