Photo: Tesla Motors
After last year’s scare, when the car market in China appeared to stumble a little, things have gotten back on track now and every carmaker in the world can breathe a sigh of relief.
Lately, the country once renowned for very cheap manufacturing is becoming more and more the main pillar of the international automotive industry. More special brands such as Tesla Motors, however, still rely heavily on their home markets in the west.
But that situation won’t last for long if we’re to believe what Elon Musk told the Chinese news agency Xinhua during his visit there. According to the eccentric billionaire, he expects that, in no more than six years’ time, China will overtake the US as his company’s most important market.
Tesla Motors has just announced its sales figures for the third quarter of 2015, and the trend is obvious. During the first three months of this year, Tesla sold 797 cars in China. The next three months saw a slight increase up to 883 Model S cars. Finally, the third quarter that ended in September brought an increase of roughly 50 percent with a total number of 1,345 units sold.
And that’s even before Tesla launched the Model X falcon-winged SUV. Deliveries of the new EV in China will start next year and are expected to change Tesla’s fortunes since SUVs are in high demand there.
What’s changing the ties in favor of electric vehicles is the country’s elites realizing that the pollution issue is a very serious one, and public transportation is one of the major causes. Of course, since not everybody can afford an EV (they don’t have a garage, for example), them buying one won’t change much in the bigger picture.
It will change the quality of the air they breathe, however, if it’s a Tesla equipped with the Bioweapon Defense Mode. What seemed like a joke and a pretty useless feature to most of us at the time could prove a very strong selling point over in China.
With plans to open a plant there as well, it’s clear Elon Musk is betting big on his cars’ success in the Middle Kingdom on medium to long term. Just like any other carmakers, apparently.
But that situation won’t last for long if we’re to believe what Elon Musk told the Chinese news agency Xinhua during his visit there. According to the eccentric billionaire, he expects that, in no more than six years’ time, China will overtake the US as his company’s most important market.
Tesla Motors has just announced its sales figures for the third quarter of 2015, and the trend is obvious. During the first three months of this year, Tesla sold 797 cars in China. The next three months saw a slight increase up to 883 Model S cars. Finally, the third quarter that ended in September brought an increase of roughly 50 percent with a total number of 1,345 units sold.
And that’s even before Tesla launched the Model X falcon-winged SUV. Deliveries of the new EV in China will start next year and are expected to change Tesla’s fortunes since SUVs are in high demand there.
What’s changing the ties in favor of electric vehicles is the country’s elites realizing that the pollution issue is a very serious one, and public transportation is one of the major causes. Of course, since not everybody can afford an EV (they don’t have a garage, for example), them buying one won’t change much in the bigger picture.
It will change the quality of the air they breathe, however, if it’s a Tesla equipped with the Bioweapon Defense Mode. What seemed like a joke and a pretty useless feature to most of us at the time could prove a very strong selling point over in China.
With plans to open a plant there as well, it’s clear Elon Musk is betting big on his cars’ success in the Middle Kingdom on medium to long term. Just like any other carmakers, apparently.
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