Tesla shares were up by nearly 4% during early afternoon trading on Friday after the electric vehicle maker reported strong sales in China. The company reported wholesale shipments of 74,402 vehicles from its factory in China. This is a 32% rise from a year ago as well as a 13% month-over-month jump from January.
Chandan Kumar, head of products at ETF provider Indxx commented that Tesla’s continued growth in China is unsurprising. This is because China’s Passenger Car Association (CPCA) stated in February that sales of new energy vehicles rose by 30% overall for the month.
“As a logical result of this Tesla, despite what many Americans may think, only gets roughly 31% of its total sales from the US, with the rest essentially all from China and Europe,” Kumar observed.
Much of Tesla’s sales boost comes from the company’s decision to cut the price of its Chinese-made Model 3 and the Model Y in January, which were reduced by 13.5% and 10% respectively.
Despite Tesla’s sales growth, the company was still outperformed by competitors such as BYD, which outsold Tesla and grew its new energy vehicle sales by over 100% for the month.