SHANGHAI (Reuters) – U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla sold 32,165 China-made vehicles in May, including 22,340 for export, the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said on Thursday.
That compares with 1,152 vehicles sold and none exported in April. The Tesla factory halted work for 22 days beginning late March to comply with a city-wide lockdown in Shanghai.
The plant, which manufactures Model 3s and Model Ys, reopened on April 19 and resumed exports on May 11 but has struggled to get production back to pre-lockdown levels.
Tesla’s Shanghai factory produced 33,544 vehicles in May, up 212% from April, the association added.
China‘s BYD delivered 114,183 cars in May. Electric vehicle maker Li Auto delivered 11,496 and Xpeng Inc 10,125.
CPCA also said passenger car sales in May in China had totalled 1.37 million, down 17.3% from a year earlier.
June sales should be 10% to 20% higher than a year earlier, CPCA secretary general Cui Dongshu told reporters. Demand from earlier months, suppressed by lockdowns that have now eased, would support June sales, Cui said.
The world’s biggest auto market is recovering from its worst monthly drop since March 2020 after China’s efforts to stamp out COVID-19 outbreaks across multiple cities disrupted supply chains and dampened demand.
(Reporting by Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Edmund Blair and Bradley Perrett)
