Tesla insurance registrations in China dropped nearly 20% last week even as China's overall passenger car market recovered from the Lunar New Year holiday. TSLA shares surged Tuesday after consecutive sessions of losses.
The global EV giant had 6,963 insurance registrations for the week of Feb. 6-12. That was down 19%, after registrations had surged to 8,643 in the week prior. Of the Feb. 6-12 insurance registrations, 1,096 were Tesla Model 3 vehicles while there were 5,867 registered Tesla Model Y vehicles, according to CnEVPost.
Last week, China EV sales continued to rebound broadly. Top Tesla competitor BYD had 31,417 total insurance registrations, up 29% compared to the week prior. China-EV startups Li Auto registrations jumped 81% to 4,062, Nio registrations advanced 56% to 3,045 and XPeng grew 43% to 1,396.
Denza, the luxury EV manufacturer owned by BYD and Mercedes-Benz had 1,457 insurance registrations last week.
Tesla stock advanced 7.5% to 209.42 Tuesday during market trade. On Monday, TSLA shares dropped more than 1% to 194.64. Tesla stock is up 105% from its Jan. 6 bear market low of 101.81. Until Friday, Tesla stock had been on a run of eight straight sessions with gains.
Sunday night, Tesla raised the U.S. Model Y Performance price by $500, a week after raising Model Y Long Range and Performance prices by $1,500 and $1,000, respectively. Tesla also cut the base Model 3 price by $500 for the second time in a week.
This comes after Tesla on Friday raised the base Model Y price in China by 2,000 yuan ($295) to 261,900 yuan ($31,569). That follows a cut of 29,000 yuan on Jan. 6, which were part of sweeping, across-the-board cuts in China and Asia.
Tesla sold 66,051 China-made vehicles in January, a 10.4% increase compared to a year ago and up 18.4% vs. December. Of those deliveries, the global EV giant exported 39,208 vehicles from its Shanghai plant. Tesla tends to focus on exports from Shanghai in the first part of the year.
Tesla's January exports were up 183% compared to December, but down 3% vs. January, 2022. Meanwhile, Tesla delivered 26,843 vehicles in China, down 36% from December but a nearly 39% increase compared to the same month a year ago.
CEO Elon Musk told investors on Jan. 26 that Tesla saw "the strongest orders year to date than ever in our history" in January. Musk added that orders were coming in at "almost twice the rate of production."
Signaling expectations for increased demand, Tesla plans to produce an average of nearly 20,000 vehicles a week at its Shanghai plant in February and March, according to Reuters. The company expects monthly production to roughly reach September levels of 82,000 vehicles.
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Tesla Stock: Investor Day
Meanwhile, Musk announced his "Master Plan 3" will be presented at Tesla's March 1 investor day. He has called the plan the "path to a fully sustainable energy future for Earth."
On Monday, Musk tweeted that Tesla's definition of "investor" includes "the people & life of Earth."
"It will be a message of good hope & positivity for the future," Musk wrote.
CFRA Research last week downgraded Tesla stock to a "Buy" rating, down from "Strong Buy." However, the firm did hike its Tesla stock price target to 250, up from 210.
"All eyes are on TSLA's upcoming investor day on March 1 and we note that TSLA shares have tended to run up ahead of such events in the past," CFRA analyst Garrett Nelson wrote.
TSLA shares rank fourth in IBD's Auto Manufacturers industry group. Tesla stock has a 65 Composite Rating out of 99. The stock has a 16 Relative Strength Rating, an exclusive IBD Stock Checkup gauge for share-price movement. The EPS rating is 99.
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