Tesla has emerged as a rare outlier in China’s slowing electric vehicle (EV) market, posting a massive sales surge in February even as domestic leaders like BYD grapple with double-digit declines.
The US carmaker’s Shanghai Gigafactory delivered nearly 58,600 vehicles to Chinese buyers last month, up 91 per cent compared with the same period last year, according to data from automotive platform Dongchedi.
Sales of Model Y stood at 41,404 units, while Model 3 accounted for 17,195 units. Starting at 263,500 yuan (US$38,340), the Model Y was the top-selling EV in February.
Geely Auto’s Xingyuan and Boyue L models ranked second and third, with volumes of 37,859 units and 23,303 units, respectively, according to Dongchedi’s data. Xiaomi’s YU7 moved into fourth place with 20,196 units, narrowly edging out BYD’s Seagull, which settled in fifth with 20,190 units.
The February surge marks a significant turnaround in fortunes for Tesla’s Model Y, whose dominance was challenged in 2025 by sub-100,000 yuan competitors like Xingyuan and SAIC-GM’s Wuling Hongguang Mini EV.
The improvement in Tesla’s sales comes on the heels of aggressive financial manoeuvring after Chinese authorities urged an end to the brutal price wars that have plagued the sector.
Shifting its strategy towards “soft” discounts, Tesla China has since January promoted zero-interest and low-interest financing plans with terms extending up to seven years, in addition to promotional insurance offers tailored to specific models.
“Amid the sticky competition, Tesla’s low-interest financing plans lowered the threshold of mainland consumers,” said David Zhang, general secretary of the Shanghai-based International Intelligent Vehicle Engineering Association.
Tesla’s performance also defied the overall slowdown in China’s car market. Data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed that overall sales of new-energy vehicles (NEVs) fell 13.1 per cent year on year in February to around 723,000 units.
BYD, the world’s largest EV manufacturer, saw its February sales plunge 41 per cent year on year to 190,190 units. However, Leapmotor, the bestseller among EV start-ups, saw sales jump 11 per cent year on year to 28,067 units.
The CPCA noted in a report on Thursday that the market was currently in a “recovery phase” following the halving of tax subsidies at the end of 2025, as consumers who rushed to buy cars last year to secure those benefits have left a “front-loading” void in early 2026.
Though the weak start was expected, the industry body highlighted that the divergence was speeding up, calling for more policy support to the sector.
While domestic demand sputtered, Chinese carmakers turned to global markets to offset local weakness. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, carmakers exported around 276,000 NEVs in February, representing a 120 per cent year-on-year rise.
BYD exported 100,600 vehicles in February, up 52 per cent from a year earlier. This also lifted the proportion of exports to half of its total monthly sales.
Tesla’s exports, meanwhile, rose more than fourfold, shipping over 20,000 units from Shanghai in February.
For the first two months of the year, Geely led the pack of exporters, with shipments rising 1.5 times year on year to about 156,000 units.
