In October, Tesla (TSLA) saw its worst sales performance in China in years – down 36% year-over-year. It was its worst month of the year – even worse than when the automaker was transitioning production to the refreshed Model Y.
China is the world’s largest EV market and also the most competitive.
Tesla has been struggling in the market this year, and October was the worst month yet.
After releasing wholesale data (domestic sales plus export) earlier this month, the authorities have now released Tesla’s retail sales in China.
The American automaker delivered just over 26,000 electric vehicles in China in October. That’s down 36% compared to the more than 40,000 EVs it delivered during the same period last year.
Here are Tesla’s retail sales in China over the last 3 years:
Tesla’s sales are down more than 40,000 units year-to-date compared to last year.
It means the automaker would need to see two consecutive months of record sales in November and December to avoid its first full-year sales decline in China.
Wholesale, which includes the vehicles that Tesla sells in China and those that it builds in China and exports to other markets, is also down 10% year-over-year.
If the trend continues, it would mark two consecutive years of Tesla’s wholesale numbers from China being down.
Electrek’s Take
The worrying part is that EV sales are surging in China (in 2025 as a whole, not in October specifically), yet Tesla is not benefiting from it whatsoever.
Top comment by Mike Tsai
In terms of number of vehicles sold, it likely can only get worse. In fact it already has, the China numbers are not beating the numbers like 2 years ago on per quarter basis (sometimes it's a little higher for a quarter, but on annual basis, it decreases). In China, competition is too strong and the EV market there is too saturated and everywhere else, it's not much better either because of competition or geopolitical reasons. Next year, I think Tesla's "cost" will rise dramatically because of non-profitable business like RoboTaxi and Optimus burning a hole. Tesla's profit will still be net positive, but I think it would be pretty bad. Semi might be a dark horse, but honestly, it will not make a dent in 2026. As for roaster, let's just say, no one cares about it anymore even if it can fly.
After a worrying performance in 2024, Tesla shareholders hoped the Model Y refresh and then the new Model YL would send the automaker back on the growth path, but it simply isn’t working.
The competition is too strong in China, and Tesla appears to have hit a plateau.
It was expected to release new cheaper versions of Model 3 and Model Y, like it recently did in the US, but those are also lagging.
There’s room for concern here.
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