Unplugged
Last week we discussed how Nike was struggling with its business in China — today it's Tesla's turn.
The electric vehicle maker reported that it had delivered just over 250,000 cars globally, an 18% drop on the effort from Q1 when the company had shipped more than 310,000.
Like Nike, Tesla has been struggling with COVID restrictions at its factories. Tesla's Shanghai factory — known as the Giga Shanghai — had to close multiple times in the first quarter, and broader supply chain constraints like the computer chip shortage haven't helped either.
Tesla's minor hiccup follows years of remarkable progress that made it the largest EV manufacturer in the world. But just as it struggles with its operations in China, it's also facing rising competition from within the country. Chinese rival BYD reported just this week that it sold 641,000 EVs in the first six months of this year, more than Tesla's 565,000, leading some to proclaim that Tesla has officially been dethroned as the world's largest EV maker.
Technically some of those BYD sales were not full battery electric vehicles, with some hybrid sales included, so the distinction is slightly muddled. Nonetheless, the competition is coming — and, crucially, consumers are expecting it; data from Morning Consult showed that consumers expect to have the choice of more than 130 EV models by 2024. Back in 2010 they only had a few to choose from.
