Tesla’s share of EV sales hits 3-year low on Shanghai lockdown

A logo is displayed on a Tesla Inc. electric vehicle charging at the Tesla Supercharger station in Fremont, California, U.S., on Monday, July 20, 2020. Tesla Inc. is scheduled to release earnings figures on July 22. Photographer: Nina Riggio/Bloomberg

Tesla Inc.’s share of global electric vehicle sales fell to the lowest in more than three years due to Shanghai’s lockdown, which cost the carmaker weeks of output from its most productive plant.

The Model 3 maker registered 39,650 vehicles in April, down 78% from the month of March, according to a report Dan Levy, Credit Suisse’s US auto analyst, published Wednesday. Tesla’s share of global EV sales dropped to 10% from 27%, Levy wrote, citing data from EV-Volumes, which tracks more than 80 markets.

Tesla did not reply to a request for comment.

Tesla is going to great lengths to restore production at its Shanghai factory, which was shut for about three weeks beginning in late March when the city implemented restrictions to contain a Covid-19 outbreak. Thousands of workers have been working 12-hour shifts, six days a week, to bring the facility back up to speed. Many slept on the plant floor as part of a so-called closed-loop system to keep Covid out and cars rolling off production lines.

It’s not unusual for Tesla’s sales to drop substantially from the last month of one quarter to the first month of the next. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has said the company concentrates on making cars for export early each quarter, and that the time it takes to transport those vehicles to customers back-ends deliveries every three months.

Musk tweeted in September that Tesla was hoping to reduce this end-of-quarter wave by early this year, and wrote that starting production at a new factory near Berlin would help the company smooth out its deliveries. The Shanghai plant became the carmaker’s primary export hub last year.