Tesla, in the whirlpool of public opinion, has not yet recovered, and its market performance in April gave it a heavy blow.

　　On May 28, according to the new energy vehicle sales statistics website EV Sales, the sales ranking of new energy vehicles in Europe in April showed that in April this year, the delivery volume of Tesla Model 3 in the European market was only 1,244. The delivery of 28,184 units dropped by 95% compared to this.

　　Future Car Daily Drawing

　　And in the Chinese market where Tesla used to soar all the way, sales have also braked sharply, pulling it off the altar of sales. According to data from the Federation of Travel Services, Tesla's sales in April were 25,845 vehicles, a 27% drop from the previous month. Among them, 14,174 were exported new cars, which means that only 11,671 vehicles were delivered in China, which was a 67.10% drop from the 35,478 vehicles in March. This was the month with the largest month-on-month decline in domestic sales of Tesla since localized production.

　　When the two markets were cold at the same time, it would undoubtedly give the ridden Tesla a pot of cold water. When its own brand and image are questioned because of quality problems, Tesla now desperately needs a self-help.

　　The European market has regressed steadily

　　In the European market, Tesla’s rise and fall are almost "two years in the east and two years in the west". When rivals began to catch up, its share was visibly declining rapidly.

　　In 2019, Tesla is a well-deserved hegemon in the European market, firmly holding a 31% share of the European electric vehicle market. By 2020, Tesla's market share in Europe will drop to 13%, and sales will drop from 109,000 vehicles in 2019 to 98,000 vehicles in 2020, a drop of about 10%.

　　Today, Tesla’s best-selling model Model 3 fell directly out of the top 20 sales of new energy vehicles in Europe in April this year. However, from a single model point of view, Model 3 is still the highest cumulative sales model in the previous April, with cumulative sales reaching 32,400, which is nearly twice that of the second-ranked Volkswagen ID.3, occupying 5% of the market share.

　　Seasonal factors may be the original sin for Tesla’s decline in sales. April is the traditional off-season in the European auto market. With the impact of the epidemic, the overall sales of passenger cars in Europe fell 78% month-on-month, and new energy vehicles fell 63% month-on-month. In the general environment, Tesla was not spared, and Tesla Model 3 deliveries fell 95% month-on-month.

　　At the same time, Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the Travel Federation, believes that this is also related to Tesla's plan. ""April is the first month of the second quarter. It is usually during the deployment period of manufacturers' orders and output. From the perspective of market rules, the delivery volume will also decline. And because of the epidemic, France and other places have implemented policies to restrict imports and exports, which has also hindered Tesla's export to Europe. "Cui Dongshu said.

　　External irresistible factors have restricted Tesla's delivery performance in the European market. However, with the efforts of local European car companies, it is quietly changing the status quo of Tesla's "dominant".

　　In the past two years, the ascendance of the European new energy market has given Tesla room for brutal growth. At that time, the European market lacked products that could compete with Tesla. With its own strong products and first-mover advantages, Tesla almost As soon as he made his move, he went crazy in the European new energy market.

　　When traditional European giants such as Volkswagen and BMW make their best effort on the new energy track, Tesla's first-mover advantage is slowly eroded, and new changes in the market structure are quietly occurring. Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, said in January this year that Renault, Volkswagen and Hyundai have outperformed Tesla in recent months, and shareholders should be "wary" about this.

　　Picture source: Volkswagen official

　　The first to pose a threat to Tesla is the masses of local players. On January 20 this year, Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess posted his first tweet on Twitter. He said that Volkswagen is catching up with Tesla in terms of market share and has won the consumer competition in Europe. war.

　　Diss’ confidence has long been reflected in sales. In September 2020, the month when the Volkswagen ID.3 was launched on the European market, it scored 8,571 vehicles, ranking third in sales of new energy vehicles in Europe in September. Today, the Volkswagen ID.4 and Volkswagen ID.3, with the delivery results of 7,565 and 5941 vehicles, respectively ranked first and second in the sales rankings in April.

　　At the same time, Volkswagen's Audi brand is also continuing to squeeze Tesla's market space in the field of high-end luxury new energy vehicles. In April, Audi e-tron sales increased by 19.45% month-on-month, ranking 12th in the ranking with 3,188 units.

　　In fact, behind Tesla's diminishing first-mover advantage in the European market, there are frequent product quality problems. The 2021 automotive reliability research rankings released by JDPower show that Tesla has 176 failures per 100 vehicles, ranking fourth from the bottom; and in the 2020 survey data given by the US Consumer Reports, the special Sla ranked second from the bottom.

　　On May 25, Norwegian media Nettavisen reported that because of battery problems, a Norwegian court ruled that Tesla was fined for using software upgrades in the background to limit the charging speed and battery capacity of Tesla electric vehicles. Tesla owners compensated 16,000 US dollars, and the affected Tesla has sold 10,000 vehicles in Norway.

　　In addition, Tesla's weak after-sales channels in the European market are also discouraging a large number of potential customers. According to Tesla's official website, the number of Tesla repair centers in France and the United Kingdom are 10 and 13, respectively. German chemical giant BASF spokesperson Ursula von Stetten once ridiculed that BASF will not buy Tesla cars for more than 50,000 employees for the time being because of the extremely fragmented Tesla car service network.

　　The Chinese market starts to save itself

　　As the European market share is declining, Tesla's life in China has also begun to be difficult.

　　On April 19th, at the Shanghai Auto Show, a rights defending car owner opened the prelude to questioning Tesla’s quality issues. Subsequent accidents have pushed the originally hot-selling Tesla to the forefront.

　　According to data from the Federation, Tesla’s sales in April were 11,954 vehicles, down 65.51% from the previous month. Among them, Tesla’s main sales model, Model 3, sold 6,431 in April, a 73.75% drop from the previous month, and fell below 10,000 for the first time.

　　On the other side, new car-building forces have also begun to take the opportunity to catch up and challenge Tesla's strong position. In April, Weilai delivered 7102 vehicles; the ideal delivery volume also reached 5539 vehicles; Xiaopeng delivered 5147 vehicles. Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said that Tesla’s April sales were inferior to those of electric vehicle startups such as Weilai, Xiaopeng and Ideal.

　　Picture source: Tesla official

　　Videbush Securities once referred to the Chinese market as the "heart and lung" of Tesla's stock. As the Chinese market's performance was unsatisfactory, Tesla's stock price also fell. If calculated according to Tesla's stock price after soaring 740% in 2020, by 2021, Tesla's stock price has fallen by nearly 20%, and the market value has evaporated by nearly 200 billion.

　　Amidst the declining market and share price, Tesla, which was once arrogant, had to bow to the Chinese market.

　　Regarding the core data issue in this storm of public opinion, Tesla officially announced not long ago that it will establish a data center in China, and all data generated from sales of vehicles in the Chinese market will be stored in the country. At the same time, Tesla will open a vehicle information query platform to car owners.

　　Chuancai Securities pointed out that Tesla will open the vehicle information query platform to car owners to make the data open and transparent, which is conducive to the discovery and improvement of the problem, and is optimistic about the increase in domestic sales of Tesla after the problem is resolved.

　　At the same time, Tesla has recently begun to recruit in China the development and operation engineers responsible for the big data platform, senior software engineers responsible for the big data platform, data scientists responsible for big data analysis, and data security experts responsible for data management. Work locations are located in Tesla's Shanghai and Beijing offices and Lingang Super Factory.

　　Although Tesla in the storm is undergoing various tests, it is difficult for Tesla to escape in the face of the Shanghai factory, which has an annual production capacity of 42.86% of Tesla’s global production capacity, and the Chinese market with huge room for imagination. But from the perspective of its layout, in addition to increasing production capacity, Musk also intends to put eggs in different baskets to avoid the risk of dependence on a single market.

　　In addition to actively self-help in the Chinese market, Tesla is also trying to continuously open up new markets. On May 21, Musk preached in a symposium held in Moscow that Tesla is considering building a factory in Russia. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he is ready to enter the Russian electric car market and will start business in Kazakhstan and other countries.

　　As early as 2019, Musk announced that he would build a fourth car factory in Berlin, Germany, the center of European automobile manufacturing. The factory is currently under construction. And last year, Musk also revealed his intention to build a factory in India, and Tesla also proposed to use its capital, Bangalore, as a potential location for Tesla’s “India factory”.

　　But at the moment, whether self-help is effective, the sales in May will say everything.