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Car sales in China declined 36% in April from the previous year due to shut down of factories and supply chain constraints amid Covid-19 lockdowns.
The China Passenger Car Association said on Tuesday that passenger-car sales in April tumbled to 1.04 million vehicles. Car production in the country declined 41% to 969,000 vehicles in the month.
The hardest hit automaker was Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) which sold only 1,512 cars made at its Shanghai plant, down 94% from a year ago. The exports of the electric-vehicle maker from China also fell to zero.
Tesla’s Shanghai plant, which reopened on April 19 after a 22-day suspension, had a very low output in April as it made just 10,757 cars. Even now, the facility is unable to ramp up output due to supply issues.
“I’ve had some conversations with the Chinese government in recent days, and it’s clear that the lockdowns are being lifted rapidly, so I would not expect this to be a significant issue in the coming weeks,” Musk said Tuesday at the Financial Times Future of the Car summit.
Other automakers including Toyota Motor Corp (NYSE: TM), Nissan Motor Co and Honda Motor Co (NYSE: HMC) also faced similar issues.
Toyota said it will have to suspend production at several plants in Japan for a certain period because of parts shortage caused due to lockdowns in Shanghai.
Nissan said its China sales in April fell 46% year over year while Honda said sales declined 36% due to the pandemic disruption.
Picture Credits: Zuma Press
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