
Tesla's Chinese made EVs sale slump continues
A decline in Tesla's China-made electric vehicle sales extended to an eighth month in May, as the US automaker's
sales woes
were compounded by brutal price wars in the world's largest auto market.
Deliveries of China-made Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, including both domestic sales and exports to Europe and other markets, fell 15 per cent in May from a year earlier to 61,662 vehicles, after a 6 per cent fall in April, data from the China Passenger Car Association showed on Wednesday.
Its China-made EV deliveries were up 5.5 per cent from April.
[
Musk committed to Tesla for next five years
Opens in new window
]
[
New Tesla pay deal for Elon Musk?
Opens in new window
]
Tesla's
EV sales rout
also continued across much of Europe last month, as its ageing model line-up and chief executive Elon Musk's political activities deterred buyers.
READ MORE
To spur sales in China, its largest market in the first quarter, Tesla last week offered smart assisted driving capability transfers to new vehicles in the country through the end of June.
Model 3 and Model Y vehicles were also added to a Chinese government-backed campaign to promote EV sales in rural areas for the first time this year.
The US EV specialist, which ignited a price war in China in 2023 that has since pulled in more than 40 brands and is showing no signs of abating, is under pressure from new lower-priced but still high-performance models in the market.
China has urged a halt to bruising price wars, after BYD offered fresh incentives on more than 20 models in late May, prompting Geely Auto and Chery to follow suit.
Global passenger vehicle
sales at BYD
, Tesla's biggest rival, rose 14.1 per cent year-on-year to 376,930 units in May, slowing from April's 19.4 per cent.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Irish Times
2 days ago
- Irish Times
The Irish Times view on EV sales: acceleration needed
Prices drive car sales. It's a self-evident truth, proven by numerous scrappage schemes, and the 2008 move to an emissions-based motor tax regime. So, a grant of up to €10,000 applied to electric cars would push the volumes towards the critical 16 per cent of vehicle stock, where research shows mass-market adoption is achieved. By the end of last year, Irish EV market adoption stood at 3 per cent. The proposed grant is one of the most eye-catching proposals in the Climate Change Advisory Council's latest annual review on transport. It cogently identifies the key hurdles to EV adoption: cost and charging infrastructure. On the cost side, it suggests a targeted grant scheme of up to €10,000, aimed specifically at lower income households in areas poorly served by public transport. However, the devil would be in the detail. Execution may prove complex, and administratively burdensome. Also, the range of new EVs within the proposed €35,000 price cap remains limited. Still, it reflects the need for innovative thinking. France, for example, offered 50,000 European-built EVs leased at €100 per month to low-income households. The scheme closed in January last year after just six weeks due to the high demand. Initially capped at 25,000 vehicles, subsidised to a maximum of €13,000 each, it had more than 90,000 applications. READ MORE For any consumer who finds an affordable EV option, the next big question is about charging. The report rightly highlights our poor performance compared to EU peers on public charging infrastructure. It identifies key sticking points, such as deploying neighbourhood charging for those without access to off-street parking. The council's review correctly identifies the key obstacles to EV adoption, and a €10,000 grant scheme, targeted at lower-income drivers, would supercharge sales. But without detail, infrastructure and swift Government action, the ambition may stall. Kudos to the council: now it's time for Government to move from recommendations to action.


Irish Examiner
2 days ago
- Irish Examiner
Donald Trump delays US TikTok ban again
Donald Trump has signed an executive order to keep TikTok running in the US for another 90 days to give his administration more time to broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership. It is the third time the president has extended the deadline. The first one was through an executive order on January 20, his first day in office, after the platform went dark briefly when a national ban — approved by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court — took effect. The second was in April when White House officials believed they were nearing a deal to spin off TikTok into a new company with US ownership that fell apart after China backed out after Mr Trump's tariff announcement. This political Groundhog Day is starting to resemble the debt ceiling drama: a recurring threat with no real resolution It is not clear how many times he can — or will — keep extending the ban as the government continues to try to negotiate a deal for TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance. While there is no clear legal basis for the extensions, so far there have been no legal challenges to fight them. Mr Trump has gained more than 15 million followers on TikTok since he joined last year, and he has credited the trendsetting platform with helping him gain traction among young voters. He said in January that he has a 'warm spot for TikTok'. As the extensions continue, it appears less likely that TikTok will be banned in the US any time soon. The decision to keep the site alive through an executive order has received some scrutiny, but it has not faced a legal challenge in court, unlike many of Mr Trump's other executive orders. Jeremy Goldman, analyst at Emarketer, called TikTok's US situation 'deadline purgatory'. The whole thing 'is starting to feel less like a ticking clock and more like a looped ringtone. This political Groundhog Day is starting to resemble the debt ceiling drama: a recurring threat with no real resolution'. Donald Trump (Alex Brandon/AP) For now, TikTok continues to function for its 170 million users in the US, and tech giants Apple, Google and Oracle were persuaded to continue to support the app, on the promise that Mr Trump's Justice Department would not use the law to seek potentially steep fines against them. Americans are even more closely divided on what to do about TikTok than they were two years ago. A recent Pew Research Centre survey found that about a third of Americans supported a ban, down from 50% in March 2023. Roughly a third said they would oppose a ban, and a similar percentage said they were not sure. Among those who supported a ban, about eight in 10 cited concerns over users' data security being at risk as a major factor in their decision, according to the report. Democratic senator Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the Trump administration is again 'flouting the law and ignoring its own national security findings about the risks' posed by a China-controlled TikTok. 'An executive order can't sidestep the law, but that's exactly what the president is trying to do,' he added.


Irish Times
3 days ago
- Irish Times
Elon Musk's X to offer investment and trading in ‘super app' push
X chief executive Linda Yaccarino has said that users will 'soon' be able to make investments or trades on the social media platform, as she outlined a push into financial services in owner Elon Musk's quest to build an 'everything app'. 'You'll be able to come to X and be able to transact your whole financial life on the platform,' Yaccarino said in an interview at the Cannes Lions advertising festival. 'And that's whether I can pay you for the pizza that we shared last night or make an investment or a trade. So that's the future.' She added that the company was also exploring the introduction of an X credit or debit card, which could come as soon as this year. The proposed foray into financial services comes as Musk seeks to model the platform, which he bought in 2022, after China's WeChat – a one-stop shop for messaging, payments and shopping. READ MORE X has already said it will be introducing X Money, a digital wallet and peer-to-peer payment service, with Visa as its first partner later this year. Yaccarino on Tuesday added that X Money would launch in the US first before being rolled out elsewhere, and said that the service would allow users to buy merchandise, store value or tip creators on the platform. [ Labour Court to hear Musk's X appeal against WRC ruling Opens in new window ] 'A whole commerce ecosystem and a financial ecosystem is going to emerge on the platform that does not exist today,' she said. A big push into financial services would, however, open X up to burdensome regulatory challenges, such as compliance with licensing and money laundering regulations. X has struggled to return to financial health after advertisers, which account for the majority of its revenues, left in droves following Musk's $44 billion (€38 billion) acquisition of the platform then known as Twitter. Many cited concerns about his hands-off approach to moderation, meaning their ads could be placed near objectionable content, as well as the billionaire entrepreneur's own provocative use of the platform. Bobby Healy on why Manna drone delivery could be the 'biggest technology company in the world for its space' Listen | 67:08 Tensions between X's leadership and advertisers have flared. In the interview, Ms Yaccarino pushed back against allegations that the social media company recently threatened brands with lawsuits if they failed to buy advertising on X. She dismissed as 'hearsay' a Wall Street Journal report last week, which said that half a dozen brands, including Verizon and Ralph Lauren, had struck deals to buy ads after receiving the threats. 'It's unnamed sources, random third-party commenters,' Ms Yaccarino said. [ Challenge by X to Irish media regulator's online safety rules set to begin this week Opens in new window ] + X filed a federal antitrust lawsuit last summer against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, a coalition of brands and ad agencies, as well as several other brands. The social media company accused the group of violating competition law by co-ordinating an 'illegal boycott' under the guise of an online safety initiative. Over time, X has added or removed several brands from the complaint. It dropped Unilever from the lawsuit after it restarted advertising on the social media platform in October. Ms Yaccarino said that 96 per cent of the company's advertising clients before acquisition had now come back to the platform, and that the company would reach its target of returning to its 2022 advertising levels 'super soon'. Some advertisers and agencies at Cannes said that they were still cautious about running ads on X and sceptical that it would hit its targets in the near future – pointing to the toxicity of content on the platform. Others had felt pressured to advertise, according to people familiar with the discussions, with one alleging that they were told to spend a specific amount or face a lawsuit. Mr Musk's close relationship with US President Donald Trump had made advertisers feel more anxious to comply with the demands, the person said. Research firm Emarketer projects that X's revenue will increase to $2.3 billion this year, compared with $1.9 billion a year ago. However, global sales in 2022, when Musk took over, were $4.1 billion. Ms Yaccarino also touted plans to bolster X's artificial intelligence capabilities after it was bought by xAI, Musk's artificial intelligence start-up, for $45 billion in March. She argued that the tie-up would help better deliver advertising against trending content in real time, adding that she now had 'double the amount of engineers' working to improve the platform. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025