Key Takeaways
- February saw Chinese EV sales plummet, with BYD experiencing a 41% decline and XPeng falling 50% compared to last year.
- The combined monthly sales for NIO, Li Auto, and XPeng hit their lowest point since January 2023.
- In 2025, Tesla’s China sales reached approximately 631,000 vehicles, marking a 4% decrease — the company’s first yearly drop in the region.
- Despite declining vehicle deliveries, Tesla stock has climbed 37% year-over-year, fueled by AI-related investor enthusiasm.
- A critical March 9 deadline approaches for Tesla to provide crash data for its robotaxi initiative to the NHTSA.
The Chinese electric vehicle market stumbled significantly at the beginning of 2026, with performance metrics that are concerning across the entire industry.
BYD’s February figures showed 187,782 passenger vehicle deliveries, representing a 41% year-over-year decrease. The company’s fully electric vehicle segment dropped 36% to 79,539 units.
XPeng’s deliveries totaled 15,256, plummeting 50% compared to the previous year. Li Auto recorded 26,421 deliveries, slipping 5%. NIO stood out as the exception, achieving 20,797 deliveries — a robust 57% increase year-over-year.
When combined, NIO, Li Auto, and XPeng delivered 62,474 vehicles total, representing a 10.6% decline from the prior year. This performance represents their weakest combined monthly showing since January 2023.
For BYD, this represented the most dramatic year-over-year delivery contraction since data collection commenced in 2021.
Tesla has significant exposure to this market. The Chinese market represented 22% of Tesla’s total revenue in 2025. The automaker delivered approximately 631,000 vehicles there last year — a roughly 4% decline from 2024, marking its first annual retreat in the country.
On a worldwide basis, Tesla delivered around 1.6 million vehicles in 2025, falling nearly 9% from the previous year. This represents the company’s second straight year of declining annual deliveries.
Artificial Intelligence Fueling Stock Performance, Not Vehicle Sales
Contrary to the softening sales figures, Tesla stock began Monday trading up approximately 37% compared to twelve months earlier. Market participants are predominantly betting on the company’s artificial intelligence initiatives rather than its automotive operations.
Tesla introduced its autonomous robotaxi service in Austin, Texas during June 2025. The company aims to broaden this service to additional metropolitan areas throughout the first half of 2026 and plans to reveal the third-generation version of its Optimus humanoid robot early this year.
These AI-related achievements currently hold greater significance for investors than traditional vehicle delivery metrics. However, EV sales remain crucial — they produce the majority of Tesla’s operating cash, which finances its AI development initiatives.
Critical Safety Data Submission Due March 9
Investors are keeping a close eye on another important date: March 9.
Tesla must provide crash data concerning possible FSD traffic violations to the NHTSA by this deadline. This submission forms part of an ongoing NHTSA safety investigation.
Since launching its Austin robotaxi program in June 2025, Tesla has documented 14 incidents. When the NHTSA initiated its investigation, the agency identified 58 incidents, with Tesla reportedly required to examine over 8,300 records.
Analyzing the 14 reported collisions reveals that many happened at extremely low speeds or while stationary. Multiple instances involved the robotaxi already stopped prior to impact. These reports don’t determine liability.
Tesla’s publicly available safety statistics indicate that a significant crash with supervised FSD happens once every 5.3 million miles, contrasting with the average U.S. driver rate of one crash per 660,000 miles.
Tesla’s Chinese competitors are also experiencing market headwinds. NIO stock has increased 5% over the trailing twelve months. Li Auto has declined 43%, XPeng is down 18%, and BYD has fallen 23%.
