Benzinga - by Shanthi Rexaline, Benzinga Editor.
Tesla Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:TSLA) sales of vehicles made in China saw a modest increase in March, offering a glimmer of hope for the global numbers due on Tuesday before the market opens.
What Happened: According to data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) reported by CnEVPost, the U.S. electric vehicle giant sold 89,064 China-made electric vehicles (MIC) in March. This represents a nearly 48% increase from February’s sales of 60,365 units. However, it’s a flat performance compared to March 2023, which saw sales of 88,869 units. Tesla sold 71,447 EVs in China in January.
For the first quarter, the company delivered a total of 220,681 MIC cars. These China-made cars are sold domestically and exported to other Asian countries and Europe.
Taking into account weekly insurance registration data, analyst Gary Black of Future Fund estimates Tesla may have sold 133,700 EVs in China in total for the quarter. This would represent a 2% year-over-year decline and a steeper 22.2% drop compared to the previous quarter.
$TSLA China finished 1Q with a strong 17.2K insured registrations for the week of March 25-31. For 1Q, we estimate TSLA insured registrations were 133.7K, -2.0% YoY and -22.2% vs 4Q. Source: @piloly pic.twitter.com/1QpmPEZvj0— Gary Black (@garyblack00) April 2, 2024
According to company-compiled consensus figures shared by Black on Monday, Tesla’s global deliveries for the quarter are expected to be around 431,000 units. Black anticipates a year-over-year decline in first-quarter sales, marking the first such drop since COVID-19 impacted sales in 2020.
In premarket trading, Tesla stock fell 0.55% to $174.25, according to Benzinga Pro data.
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