Model Y cars are photographed during the opening ceremony of Tesla’s new Gigafactory for electric cars in Grünheide
Tesla on Friday launched a new version of the Model Y, its best-selling car, on the Chinese market, hoping that improvements to the electric SUV will allow it to regain market share against its local rivals.
The American automaker’s market share in China’s electric vehicle (EV) market fell to 10.4 percent in 2014, from 11.7 percent the previous year.
The new Model Y is sold at a price of 263,500 yuan (34,854.43 euros), Tesla said on the social network Weibo, or 5.4% more expensive than the previous version.
Deliveries in China, Tesla’s second-largest market, are expected to begin in March subject to regulatory approval.
Tesla also says it has taken orders for the SUV in many other markets in the Asia-Pacific region but did not immediately give details on its deployment in North America and Europe.
The new Model Y is inspired in particular by the manufacturer’s Cybertruck and features a light strip between the two headlights on the front and rear parts of the vehicle.
The most autonomous version of this new Model Y can travel up to 719 kilometers per recharge, compared to 688 km previously.
-The Model Y, launched in 2020, became the world’s best-selling electric vehicle in 2023 but then faced fierce competition from Chinese manufacturers and falling demand in other markets.
BYD is currently the biggest seller of electric vehicles in China and consumer electronics maker Xiaomi took the market by storm last year, delivering more than 130,000 of its first model, the SU7.
However, even with this revamped Model Y, analysts say Tesla is unlikely to regain momentum in China as Xiaomi is expected to launch its first SUV, called YU7, in June or July, and Xpeng plans to launch a model named G7.
The two vehicles share “similar characteristics with the Model Y, such as youthful design and technological features, making them direct competitors,” said Shaochen Wang, a China-based automotive analyst at Counterpoint.
Furthermore, underlines the analyst, Tesla could find itself in difficulties while it has not yet finalized the complete deployment in China of its advanced driving assistance software, called “Full Self-Driving”, and that local competition is not left out.
Tesla plans to launch a six-seater variant of the Model Y in China at the end of the year, sources told Reuters.
(Written by Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh, with Qiaoyi Li; French version Kate Entringer, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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