Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at the delivery ceremony for a China-made Tesla Model 3 in Shanghai, eastern China, January 7, 2020.
Ding Ting | Xinhua News Agency | Getty’s paintings
Elon Musk has said the Chinese automaker will likely be its closest competitor Teslawhile stressing that the company is “winning in China” at the moment.
Tesla has many competitors in China in the field of electrical vehicles, including a plethora of start-ups resembling wow, Xpeng and Li Auto.
Currently, Tesla’s biggest rival in China is the automaker backed by Warren Buffett BYD. Last 12 months, BYD sold 911,140 battery electric vehicles worldwide and a complete of 1.8 million vehicles when plug-in hybrids are taken under consideration. Tesla delivered a complete of 1.31 million cars in 2022.
Musk responded to a matter about the competitive electric automobile landscape during a Tesla earnings call on Wednesday, saying the company “is enthusiastic about the future and well, it’s going to be great.”
“We’ve got great respect for automobile corporations in China. They’re the best in the world… work the hardest and smartest… compete,” Musk said Wednesday during a Tesla earnings call.
“So, if I had to guess … probably some company outside of China will most likely come second to Tesla,” Musk said.
Musk said “Tesla’s team in China is winning” in the country without further explanation.
Tesla’s Model 3 was the fifth best-selling recent energy vehicle in China in 2022, with regard to the Chinese Automobile Association. Cars made by BYD and SAIC-GM-Wuling sold more in 2022 than Tesla’s Model 3. Tesla’s Model Y was the second best-selling electric SUV in China, behind the BYD model.
Musk’s automaker faced a series of challenges in China last 12 months, including production shutdowns at its Shanghai plant due to the country’s strict Covid rules and component shortages.
Tesla also lowered the prices of its cars in China in 2022, amid a difficult macroeconomic environment and weakening consumer demand.
It isn’t just Chinese automakers competing with Tesla. Traditional automobile giants in the US and Europe also need a piece of the pie with electric vehicles.
Herbert Diess, former CEO of the German carmaker Volkswagentold CNBC in May that he believed his company could overtake Tesla to turn out to be the world’s largest seller of electrical vehicles by 2025.