Tesla Model Y reclaims the best-selling SUV crown in China for May

**Unwelcoming toxic/griefing/pessimistic sniping comments that are not on topic and don’t move the discussion forward will be removed. A ban will be issued if necessary. Consider this before commenting. Report posts or comments that violate the [Rules](https://www.reddit.com/mod/teslamotors/rules/). Thank you.** If you are unable to find it, use the link to it. We are not a support sub, please make sure to use the proper resources if you have questions: [Official Tesla Support](https://www.tesla.com/support), [r/TeslaLounge](https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaLounge/) personal content | [Discord Live Chat](https://discord.gg/tesla) for anything. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/teslamotors) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Saw one for the first time last Sunday. The back is really ugly/boxy. Maybe a design choice for the Asian market?

But I thought nobody was buying Teslas

I'm just waiting for the sweet less than 2% MY RWD LR promo :shrug:

I thought all the Chinese EVs were insanely better ?

When I’m scrolling Reddit I am under the impression that nobody is buying Teslas anymore. Then I go outside in the real world and see that at least one in every 10 cars on the road is a Tesla.

Let me help those of you who don’t read articles and look for confirmation bias: "Despite defending the crown of the best-selling SUV, the US automaker’s year-over-year comparisons don’t look so good. In May, Tesla sales in China were down 30% YoY to 38,588 units. In 2025 so far (Jan – May), Tesla sold 201,926 units in China, down 7.8% from the same period last year. In the last five months, Tesla experienced a year-over-year decline in four of them. Meanwhile, EV sales in China reached 1,021,000 units in May, up 28% from last year. That includes BEV and PHEV sales. BEV sales reached 607,000 units, up 22.4% from last year.”

Despite defending the crown of the best-selling SUV, the US automaker’s year-over-year comparisons don’t look so good. In May, Tesla sales in China were down 30% YoY to 38,588 units. In 2025 so far (Jan – May), Tesla sold 201,926 units in China, down 7.8% from the same period last year. In the last five months, Tesla experienced a year-over-year decline in four of them. Meanwhile, EV sales in China reached 1,021,000 units in May, up 28% from last year. That includes BEV and PHEV sales. BEV sales reached 607,000 units, up 22.4% from last year. from the same article, btw.

Yes, but it not that good for Tesla. Don’t read just the title. From this article: In May, Tesla sales in China were down 30% YoY to 38,588 units. In 2025 so far (Jan – May), Tesla sold 201,926 units in China, down 7.8% from the same period last year. In the last five months, Tesla experienced a year-over-year decline in four of them. Meanwhile, EV sales in China reached 1,021,000 units in May, up 28% from last year. That includes BEV and PHEV sales. BEV sales reached 607,000 units, up 22.4% from last year.

Everybody's going to see what they want to see\*. Tesla being less dominant is to be expected. The people claiming the Chinese companies are making better EVs for less are not seeing what they want to see.

Same. And I’m in Texas, far from the EV capital of America(Cali). Can’t go a day without seeing at least a dozen. Hell just a few minutes ago while driving home I saw a Cybertruck go by.

I live in VA and did an anecdotal test on Tesla EVs to non-Tesla EVs. I’d thought it be a 1:10 ratio but it was 1:20

As soon as Tesla set up factories in China, workers very quickly stole as much IP as they could (as China does with everything) and that all went to BYD. So, those BYD cars are actually pretty nice, and a decent value as the government props them up.

Did Tesla sell the most EV Cars in China in May or not?

Yeah gotta love all the praise for BYD’s infotainment which is obviously very Tesla like

So why weren’t they selling in May?

Only in SUV segment. But still not a good sign because: Model Y became the best-selling SUV despite sales falling 38% from 39,985 units in May 2024, demonstrating how strong Tesla’s position in China was.

Yeah, that's not going to last long. It's impressive how quickly Chinese evs were being considered as junk to surpassing Tesla in both value and features. Tesla's only hope is that Chinese Evs will probably never be sold here. They are going to lose a lot of ground in the rest of the world though, esp SE Asia

So, that is exactly what the title says

It's a 530 unit difference, when you're talking 24k vehicles they pretty much tied in May. And Tesla is down YoY comparably, so I'd say it's mixed news. Either way, I think BYD will continue to do fine in its home country.

The goal is to sell more cars, not the most of any single model.

doesnt BYD have really nice SUVs?

Actually the goal to sell the most SUVs in China that's a pretty good goal. Where are the german brands?

They make money by selling more cars. If they sell fewer cars, they are worse off even if all other car sales are 0.

20 teslas per 1 non tesla? Or vise versa? Assuming the former

Oh, I see. Certainly they are not that interested in the SUV segment.

Bro the juniper wasn’t available until end of q1 2025. Buyers were waiting for the refresh.

Have German brands increased their sales in China a lot over the past year?

Gotta read the article... > Despite defending the crown of the best-selling SUV, the US automaker’s year-over-year comparisons don’t look so good. In May, Tesla sales in China were down 30% YoY to 38,588 units. In 2025 so far (Jan – May), Tesla sold 201,926 units in China, down 7.8% from the same period last year. In the last five months, Tesla experienced a year-over-year decline in four of them. > Meanwhile, EV sales in China reached 1,021,000 units in May, up 28% from last year. That includes BEV and PHEV sales. BEV sales reached 607,000 units, up 22.4% from last year.

Also, Tesla \*produced 16% less 3/Y YoY\* in Q1, a majority of that decrease was the Model Y this year (was the 3 last year) that means the drop YoY for Y is more than 16%. The new 3/Y are both ramping up still. Likely were also affected by some delays due to the tariffs in the recent month.

Tesla is not being less dominant in China. Tesla and Western brand are dying in China. According to this article, Tesla market share of NEV is down to under 4% in May. That far far from dominant. Exports also down. >The exports are not helping Tesla’s Shanghai plant either. In 2025 so far (Jan-May), Tesla exported 90,949 vehicles, down 33.4% from the same period last year. However, in May, it exported 23,074 units, up 33% from 17,358 units last year.

But this is from May: >Model Y became the best-selling SUV despite sales falling 38% from 39,985 units in May 2024, demonstrating how strong Tesla’s position in China was.

From this article: >Its longtime Chinese rival, [BYD Song Plus](https://carnewschina.com/2024/08/19/2025-model-year-byd-song-plus-ev-entered-china-with-sliced-price/) (Seal U [in Europe](https://carnewschina.com/tag/byd-seal-u/)), came in second with 24,240 units—530 fewer than the Model Y. >The third spot among SUVs, with 21,014 sales, goes to the petrol-powered car [Xingyue L](https://carnewschina.com/tag/geely-xingyue-l/) from Geely. >Model Y reclaimed the title of best-selling SUV, as in April, it ended second with 19,984 sold units, while BYD Song Plus EV sold 20,668 units.

That still doesn't say if it's because of lower demand or lower supply.

Of course they are, I see CyberTrucks in my neighborhood. I wonder why my neighbors spend 4x as much on a car, even though the glue doesn’t hold, but it’s their money.

Yeah, Texas, far from the EV capital. Texas should ask Eloon to build a factory there. Or maybe be daring and beg him to move Tesla Headquarters there?? Maybe he’d want to reincorporate there instead of Delaware? /sarcasm Texas IS Tesla territory.

yeah the former. there are also rarely any hyundai or kia EVs here despite reddit thinking they’re everywhere. i see way more lucids than rivians and it’s not close. by far, the most popular non tesla EV here is the mach e. i am not counting bolts and leafs, they aren’t even proper EVs

[removed]

The dolphin? Or the whale?

They also didn’t have many sales for a while on Model Y while changing over to the New refresh

Reddit and clout-chasing celebrities, yes. Normal people know a good product when they see it, and vote with their wallets.

Tesla sales are down 50-70% in most european countries. So people are doing just that.

Makes sense for them, I wonder if it'll change in a years time

It's like copying someone's homework. You can create a copy, but when it comes to implementing the knowledge, it shows the knowledge gap. FSD in China is making waves, and competitors are trying their best to play catch-up with cheap gimmicks like parking lot memory. I will say the build quality and interiors of the Chinese EVs are top notch. But software and battery management is where Tesla shines.

its almost like the factory shutdown worldwide and then ramp up was related?

Tesla sales in China down 30% yoy in may https://cnevpost.com/2025/06/09/tesla-retail-sales-china-may-2025/. They are up month over month from April, however.

Chicken and cow

BYD currently have a huge PR disaster to handle with quite alot of people claiming that they are the next Evergrande. Their head of PR is also not doing them any favours by cherry picking stats to compare and mocking their competitors as “dogs”.

The funny thing is, just a few years ago Tesla was so ahead, majority of other EV’s were laughable in capability and price. What I’m assuming is automakers (especially china) ripped up some teslas, figured out how it ticks, and all of a sudden there’s competition. Even Porsche was caught buying a cybertruck just to tear it apart. China is just really good at copying, I mean really good, copying the styling and looks of very luxurious cars, while copying the tech of Tesla, They’ve made many budget beast of cars

MachE here too (probably because they're what? like 5th domestically?) but even that's only once a day. Maybe twice. Lightnings are about the same. It'd be cheating to count ones seen at a Supercharger, but the number of Teslas I see on a daily basis is damn near guaranteed double digits. IONIQ5 is getting up there. Those are a few times a week. Same with Rivian. We even have a Vinfast dealership here and I see one of those about once a month. Cybertruck came outta nowhere though. I see one of those pretty much daily.

Not best selling ones, unfortunately.

It didn’t, it had the highest selling SUV model by a small margin. Tesla is like 5th for overall EV sales in China

That geely car company also owns Volvo, Lynk&Co and Zeekr. Soon some Volvo car models would be redesigned based on the lynk&Co platform. The new Volvo XC70 is based on the lynk&co 08.

Not as nice as the Model Y

Still impressive that essentially a 5 year old car is still the bestseller. Juniper doesn't bring any significant enough changes, especially when you compare the wild new stuff the competition offers in China. A barebones car is beating out cars that offer much luxurious features at around the same price point.

> doesnt BYD have really nice SUVs? Not really. Their selling point is price, not performance. BYD doesn't really compete with Tesla. Xpeng, Li Auto and others are more of an apt comparison.

I think the better question to ask is why is Tesla selling so many if BYD offers better for cheaper?

> What I’m assuming is automakers (especially china) ripped up some teslas, figured out how it ticks, and all of a sudden there’s competition. Even Porsche was caught buying a cybertruck just to tear it apart. I don't believe that's the case for China. This is something every automaker does, they tear apart competitors cars to see what they're doing right. Tesla had to expose their tech when they started building in China. It was simply stolen, easily, as it happens for everything you decide to manufacture in China. This practice isn't even fully frowned upon there, it's just something that happens and everyone has accepted it.

Lol this article was downvoted to hell in /r/electricvehicles, as it always happens to any positive tesla news article

Looks normal for me : when you don't like a product you speak a lot about it. When you like it, you don't necessarily talk about it.

If you look at reviews of BYD in europe, they have bad efficiency and very heavy thermal gating while fast charging.

BYD has lots of different models. Tesla has one. Obviously when you categorise by model then the company with only one model will have somewhat of an advantage. The category isn't "total SUV sales by company"

Being down in sales for almost half the year while the market in total is massively up because you had a model refresh is at best a sign that you have too few models and at worst a sign that the refresh didn't hit the mark in terms of keeping it relevant in today's BEV market.

I thought Tesla’s were supposed to be the gold standard, not “barebones” compared to its competitors? One major reason really is because of 0% finance for 5 years at an already reduced price.

Is Tesla really that cash-strapped that they aren't able to properly refresh *any* of their cars in the lineup? I find it wild that everyone including unknown startups have all these fancy interiors while Tesla, the EV "leader" with huge margins on their cars hasn't bought anything new in terms of Luxury or design in over 10 years or so.

Total radio silence across Reddit. Isn't is interesting how any articles suggesting a sales decline by Tesla are promoted to the front page by 17 different large subreddits, but articles suggesting their sales are okay or good are nowhere to be seen. We really do live in completely different media bubbles, and Reddit really is pretty far left by global standards.

I agree. CATL's LFP chemistry looks promising but it suffers from the same issues of other LFP batteries: poor energy density by weight and volume, much worse performance in the cold vs Tesla's NCA, and lower peak output (though CATL claims to have solved this last one they have not released a prototype for review yet). It's cheap though, and could make EVs at the lower end of the market much more affordable. Tesla seems unwilling to serve that segment.

This is one strategic decision I never understood. China has followed this playbook every single time for decades: offer free rent, power, and tax forgiveness for x years; steal IP; kick out or seize the original company's manufacturing facilities. It was only a matter of time until China began creating comparable vehicles for cheaper. What was Tesla's plan for that eventuality? It looks like they don't really have one, or anticipated having autonomous driving by now. That's much harder to steal.

The new 3 is ramping up? It's been over a year lol. The Y isn't ramping up either which can be easily observed when Tesla was offering 0% apr in China for the model Y. You don't do discounts on cars that are in short supply. How does tariffs affect the factory in China?

This is simply not true. Juniper was available in January in China and Tesla was offering 0% apr in March to move them.

Sales are okay? They are down YOY compared to last May in China.

Most new cars in Germany are business leases. Tesla has none of those. I would say 90%+ are private buyers. People are rather buying two or three years old EQSs than new Model Ys. Those are coming down from 170k Euros though. Somebody must have eaten that deprecation. As for China: their economy is tanking and only those who haven’t heard are buying… The people who buy Tesla know that they’re going to be around, which cannot be said about all its competitors in China.

I see a few dozen Subaru’s everyday and every other type of car and model. Yeah, if you’re looking for a certain vehicle on the road everyday, you’re going to see a lot of them.

Shanghai factory is very capable of putting out 90k cars a month yet they are not doing it. If there was really this huge demand the factory would be running a full steam yet it seems it is not even running at half of that.

Tesla model y only car that has raised prices in China y/y. It’s a terrible macro situation right now, esp with the bloodbath in China

All western brands but Tesla. The macro is incredibly bad in China. Tesla has a strong presence and will rebound while USA based OEMs are exiting entirely.

Margin has to be evaluated as well. Total volume means nothing at little to no or negative margin. Tesla is competing at a much higher price point and consequently a much less total addressable market than BYD and other Chinese cutthroat cost brands

They're not cash strapped at all, they had $37 billion on hand at the end of last quarter. A few years ago I assumed they were just trying not to take any big risks after the Model 3, but now I don't understand the lack of major updates to any of the cars.

That is not correct. According to their cash flow statement, they had $3.58 billion

They might not have a nice SUV, but they just outsold Tesla recently. People are buying their cars. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/chinas-byd-outsells-tesla-europe-first-time-report-says-2025-05-22/

The model 3 and model Y were both refreshed recently..

I always say Reddit has no correlation with reality. "But but Reddit is made of people, so it's reality". No Reddit is made of a specific slice of people who circlejerk the same message until it disconnects from reality. Reality is people outside the US, who have the money to buy luxury cars, don't give a shit what Elon does or his views or policies. It doesn't directly affect them the way mail delivery and garbage pickup does. They will buy based on perception of quality for price. Compared to all EV's in my country, Tesla cars are superior by a fucking long mile. Hands down.

I'm not talking about cash flows, I'm talking about cash on hand. Their cash, cash equivalents, and investments were $36.996 billion in their Q1 2025 10-Q filing.

It’s still the best selling EV🤨

Look at *any* car made between 2017 to 2025 and you'll find they're probably totally different cars today in terms of looks and finish.

No. They make the best selling SUV, but it is far from the best selling BEV model in total.  https://data.carnewschina.com, which made the article, has some data free and you can pay to dig into it deeper.  Tesla as a whole is still down YoY in China. Its just the Model Y which is undeniably a good price for what you get.

So are Teslas. Go sit in a 2018 Model 3 and a 2024+, or a 2020 Model Y and a 2025+. You will not find a single interior component that is the same between them. Interiors have been completely redone, suspensions have been completely redone, motors are different, batteries are different, wheels are different, trim is different, computers are different, sound deadening has been completely redone, front and rear exterior have been completely redone. The only thing that has remained the same is the body and door shape of the cars.

It is, what I meant is that the M3 isn’t an EV Camry like in Cali. When I go to LA literally every other car is a Tesla. Here, while they’re common, they’re still far from being so common that they blend in.

I get that. But look at 2017 bmw 3 interior and 2025 bmw 3 interior. It's a totally different car. Same with the exterior. I get that Tesla has made many changes, and maybe, their "backend" technology has been getting better at a faster pace than BMW's. But I am not excited by the interior and exterior they are offering today. I sat in a BYD the other day and seats just blew my mind. It's things like this that Tesla is really behind on.

Currently in HK and seeing a lot of new Model Ys on the roads. People are definitely driving them.

For Chinese EVs, I wouldn't say they're that nice looking. They look like a basic Honda CRV or something. XPeng and Zeekr are way more sleek in design and style.

I mean, the seats are redesigned and better than they used to be, so I don’t know what you want 🤷‍♂️. Design is similar, but bolstering is different, padding feels different, and they are cooled and perforated now. Probably the only company to offer cooled seats in the base model, by the way, as every other company charges extra for that. The same can be said about almost every aspect of the car… improvements all around. Frankly, if I like a car, then I don’t want the company to scrap it and make something completely different… I just want them to tweak it and make it better. Look how many BMW fans used to be absolutely obsessed with certain older generations of 3 series and now hate the newer generations of 3 series because the car lost all of its DNA and character that they loved.

> I thought Tesla’s were supposed to be the gold standard, not “barebones” compared to its competitors You are horribly misinformed then! You should read more and comment less!

I’d say I read plenty enough, thanks. So you’re content with saying Tesla is not the best in class? I’ve no problem with that, cos they aren’t.

I didn't say that BYD doesn't sell.

Macro is bad but sale of NEV is up 28% and BEV is up 22% while Tesla sale keeps falling. With Tesla market share fall under 4% in May, I think Tesla is already dead. They will stay there for a little longer than other western brand for sure. Because Tesla already lose all of its moat. Tesla software no longer superior , FSD nerf with too much data restrictions, battery tech is already behind. Even Apple with iOS, much better brand, cutting-edge chip with most advance TSMC node is losing market share in China every year. I don’t think Tesla has a chance in China.

Elon doesn't care, he wants robotaxis. The whole interior is designed with that in mind, easy to clean with central display for passengers. I wouldn't be surprised if they stopped selling cars in a few years

> So you’re content with saying Tesla is not the best in class? Tesla is not one vehicle. Which vehicle are you implying? You will not find anybody in this sub claim that any tesla vehicle is the best in class for interior. Everyone understands they're all barebones inside. I can't speak specifically about other Tesla vehicles because I only own the legacy Y. And yes, other than the interior (barring speakers, because they are amazing) and suspension, the Y is the best in class in almost all aspects. Which EV do you drive? Which ones have you test driven?

It’s very possible. We ordered a Model Y on 05/07 at Brea Mall. The waiting line is long and was not available until 06/09, a full month later. We picked up yesterday (06/10).

It did hit the mark, now that it is out. Pity those that bought the old Y before May.

Tesla and BYD are losing market share in China due to stiff competition. BYD also has more than one SUV model. Add all those models together and BYD outsells Tesla.

They lead in battery tech though.

Tesla's plan is to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy. It might even be the case that that *was* the plan. Either way, no one can replicate FSD

It's been common for Tesla to sell fewer vehicles in the first month of the quarter and more vehicles in the last month of quarter. The number of sold cars in June might be higher than May. At least in China. February was the outlier because it was the month the assembly line was being adapted for the new Model Y. I believe the trade war contributed to lower sales in this quarter in China.

Objectively, everyone around the world is buying fewer.

other makers just have too many variety of cars. Like BYD has 5 different things, and their sales will get distributed among those. If you combine those, and then for neo for other companies, individually they are high. Model Y is high on its own, but yoy as well its low

just EVs or any cars?

I thought BYD was dominating in china? very confusing

They have multiple SUV models to choose from, when you only have 1 SUV model and then get that superlative, it's the equivalent of a JD Power and Associates award

New stats are in for China...Tesla Model Y best selling EV for the first half of 2025!!

i dont think we will ever see any positive press in the states until Tesla pays for it, the media bashes those who dont advertise, simple as that. almost anyone can build a “cool car” but tech is the new luxury, especially in china… look at Porsche, even their ceo says its game over in that market. ”reality” is no one has the “tech” tesla does.. FSD is future of autos, take a look at latest Chinese NHTSA report. No one is even close to FSD. Robo taxi rollout is going very well in US and soon in other countries… What am I missing here?