Coronavirus: China’s March car sales down over 40 per cent, but Tesla had record month

China’s March car sales fell 40.8 per cent from a year earlier to 1.08 million units, the China Passenger Car Association said on Thursday, as efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic in the country weakened economic activity.

The association, however, said that overall passenger car sales volume in April would be much higher than in March.

Tesla, though, sold 10,160 vehicles in China in March, its highest ever monthly sales in the world’s largest car market, the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) also said on Thursday.

Tesla, which aims to produce 150,000 Model 3 sedans from its US$2 billion Shanghai factory, sold around 30 per cent of the battery electric vehicles sold in China, Cui Dongshu, CPCA secretary general, said.