Amid a slump in car sales of any kind during the lockdown, Tesla’s registrations in California plunged by 48 percent year on year to 9,774 vehicles in the second quarter of 2020, according to data from marketing research firm Cross-Sell quoted by Reuters.
Tesla’s Fremont Gigafactory was closed for six weeks in April and May, when most states in the United States, including California, were under stay-at-home orders, and sales of both conventional and electric vehicles (EVs) plunged.
Tesla and Elon Musk entered into a dispute with the health authorities in Alameda County over the re-opening of the Fremont factory, which the EV maker re-opened in May in violation of a shutdown order issued by the health authorities of Alameda County. Due to the dispute, Musk threatened to move Tesla’s headquarters out of California into more business-friendly states such as Texas or Nevada.
For California registrations, which differ from vehicle deliveries, Tesla’s Model 3 registrations plunged by 63.6 percent to 5,951 vehicles in the second quarter, Cross-Sell data seen by Reuters showed.
Tesla’s registrations in the 23 U.S. states where Cross-Sell collected data showed a 49-percent slump to 18,702 vehicles.
Earlier this month, Tesla reported its second-quarter vehicle and production delivery numbers, which showed 82,000 vehicles produced and 90,650 vehicles delivered, easily beating analyst expectations for deliveries.
“While our main factory in Fremont was shut down for much of the quarter, we have successfully ramped production back to prior levels,” Tesla said.
In a sign that mobility in the United States is recovering after the lockdowns, Musk said two weeks ago that the usage of Superchargers in North America had returned to the pre-coronavirus levels, while Europe is about a week behind in Supercharger usage. China and Asia-Pacific in general are doing great in Supercharger usage, Musk said on Twitter in early July.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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