Tesla's China Sales Dip in 2025 Despite Record December Deliveries

Tesla’s TSLA Shanghai plant delivered 97,171 vehicles in December, making it the company’s strongest delivery month of 2025, per the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) data. The deliveries rose 3.6% year over year and exceeded the deliveries of 90,812 Model 3 and Model Y units in September.

Even with a solid finish to the year, total shipments from Giga Shanghai, including domestic sales and exports, reached about 851,732 vehicles in 2025, down around 7% year over year, per Drive Tesla. Still, the facility accounted for more than half of Tesla’s global deliveries, which totaled 1.64 million vehicles in 2025, underscoring the plant’s critical role in the automaker’s overall performance.

Tesla sold roughly 625,000 Giga Shanghai-manufactured vehicles in mainland China in 2025, down nearly 5% from 2024, per the South China Morning Post. This marked the first year of falling mainland sales since the Shanghai factory began operations in 2020.

China remains Tesla’s second-largest market after the United States, and despite the decline in sales, the Shanghai facility continued to be the company’s largest production hub.

Giga Shanghai also marked two major milestones in December 2025. On Dec. 8, Tesla produced its four-millionth vehicle at the plant and on Dec. 30, it rolled out its nine-millionth electric vehicle globally from the same facility, further consolidating its status as Tesla’s largest manufacturing site worldwide. TSLA carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) at present.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

December Deliveries of Tesla’s Chinese Counterparts

BYD Company Limited BYDDY delivered 414,784 passenger vehicles globally in December 2025, per CPCA. BYD delivered 4.6 million vehicles in 2025, which increased 7.7% from 2024 and achieved its full-year sales target. Sales of BYD were evenly split between fully electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, with nearly 2.3 million units sold in each category. However, this milestone comes as the Chinese auto market faces a difficult year ahead.

Per CPCA, Geely Automobile Holdings Limited GELHY delivered 154,264 passenger vehicles worldwide in December 2025. For the full year, Geely sold 3.02 million vehicles, meeting its target of 3 million units. Geely has set a 2026 sales goal of 3.45 million vehicles, implying growth of about 14% from 2025 levels.

Tesla’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates

Tesla has outperformed the Zacks Automotive – Domestic industry in the past six months. Shares of Tesla have surged 53.7% compared with the industry’s growth of 46.4%.
 

From a valuation perspective, Tesla appears overvalued. Going by its price/sales ratio, the company is trading at a forward sales multiple of 14.17, higher than its industry’s 3.3.
 

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2025 EPS has moved down a penny in the past seven days. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2026 EPS has moved down 9 cents in the past 30 days.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

Zacks Investment Research