BEIJING – Tesla Inc., a California-based electric vehicle manufacturer, unveiled a less expensive version of the Model Y in China on Thursday, where it confronts heightened scrutiny from regulators and the public, as well as growing rivalry from local rivals. The China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) said on Thursday that Tesla’s sales of China-made vehicles fell in June compared to the previous month.
The firm, which manufactures Model 3 sedans and Model Y sport utility vehicles in Shanghai, sold 33,155 China-made vehicles in June, up from 33,463 in May.
However, Tesla’s domestic sales in China climbed in June, with 28,138 cars sold, up from 21,936 the previous month.
Tesla’s stock plummeted 1.2 percent on Thursday, and it was on track to fall for the third day in a row.
After government subsidies, the standard-range Model Y released on Thursday has a starting price of 276,000 yuan (US$42,588), which is about 20% less than the long-range Model Y.
The price reduction lets the Model Y’s base model to qualify for incentives available to new energy cars priced under 300,000 yuan.
Last year, Tesla removed a standard-range Model Y from its U.S. website, citing a range of fewer than 250 miles as “unacceptably low.”
The new version, which employs CATL’s lithium iron phosphate batteries (LFP), can go 525 kilometers (326 miles) on a single charge, against 594 kilometers for the long-range model.
Last month, BYD sold 40,532 so-called new energy vehicles in China, including battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. The joint venture between General Motors and SAIC Motor sold 30,479 of these vehicles.
According to the CPCA, China sold 1.6 million passenger cars in June, down 5.3 percent from the previous year.
(One US dollar equals 6.4806 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Yilei Sun, Hyunjoo Jin, and Tony Munroe contributed reporting; Mark Potter and Sonya Hepinstall edited the piece.)/n
