Tesla Firing 30% Of Staff In China Due To Poor Sales

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Did anyone really think Tesla sales would be good in China? Well, beside Elon Musk that is. ;)

Struggling with sluggish sales which failed Elon Musk's expectations, the American electric carmaker Tesla is to dismiss 30 percent of its 600-people-strong China team, a local newspaper Economic Observer reported on 6 March. The wide-spread dismissal started before 17 February, the Chinese New Year, and continued after employees came back from holidays.
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Steve said:
Did anyone really think Tesla sales would be good in China? Well, beside Elon Musk that is. ;)
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Well to be fair, China does have a very strong market for American brands. That's why the Apple phone is so popular over there, it's one of the very few phones that is "American". They do not want the China (or Japanese for that matter) made stuff.
 
westrock2000 said:
Well to be fair, China does have a very strong market for American brands. That's why the Apple phone is so popular over there, it's one of the very few phones that is "American". They do not want the China (or Japanese for that matter) made stuff.
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The irony.
 
Only the minority are wealthy in China plus nationalism is factored into their purchasing decision. They'd rather buy their own inferior made products. Tesla does really well in Europe where wealth is more universal.
 
Elon is a dweeb. No amount of favorable English written press can change that perception where English is a very distant second language at best.

But mostly they aren't in a automatically assume new = better mindset which seems to prevail over sub 35'ers whatever they're called. Old names carry weight.
 
westrock2000 said:
Well to be fair, China does have a very strong market for American brands. That's why the Apple phone is so popular over there, it's one of the very few phones that is "American". They do not want the China (or Japanese for that matter) made stuff.
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Affluent people there have a thing for foreign brands, not everyone in general. Kind of similar to how affluent people here like BMWs and Italian Marble and so forth. it's a status symbol. They don't want Japanese things, because chances are it's made in China anyways.

A perfect example is Japanese toilets. Affluent Chinese people are upset because after traveling over to Japan to get them, they realized it was made in China. The toilets are usually sold there too, sometimes with extra features, yet they travel for it. It's about status and being able to do that. The bigger issue here is likely infrastructure.
 
I'm guess China is either taxing the shit out of imported cars, or highly subsiding the ones from Chinese companies to price everyone else out of the market.
 
You really have to try and sell in china simply because of the number of people there.
 
Other breaking news, Chinese electric car manufacturer Tesra, has announced the opening of a new factory to provide electric vehicles for a fraction of the cost!
 
sfsuphysics said:
Other breaking news, Chinese electric car manufacturer Tesra, has announced the opening of a new factory to provide electric vehicles for a fraction of the cost!
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with a fraction of the power and battery life and a 10x higher risk of fire.
 
My guess is China, despite being a huge market - the future mega market to covet for sure - is also fairly difficult to penetrate from abroad due to China's heavy investment/subsidies in areas it thinks will be a future industry it wants to control, not to mention local politics.

Companies like BYD are pushing very hard in this area and it'd be very hard for Tesla and other foreign competitors to compete on their home turf. Tesla's survival will have to depend on European consumers and eventually its home market, that alone is a big challenge for such small fry.

I wouldn't be surprised if China overtook this future market the way it did the solar panels one with their cheap subsidized competing products strategy and longterm planning. Hopefully Tesla will be able to survive by selling in Europe until it's able to go mainstream in its current home turf.
 
jpm100 said:
Elon is a dweeb. No amount of favorable English written press can change that perception where English is a very distant second language at best.

But mostly they aren't in a automatically assume new = better mindset which seems to prevail over sub 35'ers whatever they're called. Old names carry weight.
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Tesla's will probably fail in China because they got BYD there, a huge and heavily subsidized local outlet. BYD's starting to take over the US market from a different angle:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technolo...l-dominate-the-us-electric-bus-market/360985/

If there's electric cars in the future then it could easily be a repeat of 70s Toyota except with Chinese brands.
 
Biznatch said:
I'm guess China is either taxing the shit out of imported cars, or highly subsiding the ones from Chinese companies to price everyone else out of the market.
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Nope - Buick sales in China are higher than in the USA. 35% of the global sales volume for Buick is from China alone.
 
The more likely reasons are:

-Conspicuous conservation is not a big thing in China
-Conspicuous consumption favors the traditional luxury and exotic marques
-Charging infrastructure not readily available
-Benefits with a primary coal generated electricity are minimal vs gasoline
 
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