Tesla's Shanghai factory sold 67,829 cars at wholesale in October 2026, according to preliminary China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) figures released on 3 November and reported by CnEVPost. That is 10.30% more than the 61,497 of October 2025 and 28.88% fewer than September's 95,366. Only February, at 58,599, was weaker this year. Reuters reported the same 10.3% rise.
Wholesale counts both Tesla's sales in China and exports from Gigafactory Shanghai, which builds the Model 3 and Model Y. The preliminary release does not split the two, so October's total cannot yet say which side fell.
October falls every year
The drop from September is large, but it is not new. Shanghai's October volume has fallen from September's in each of the last three years, according to CnEVPost's monthly series:
| Year | September | October | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 88,321 | 68,280 | −22.7% |
| 2025 | 90,812 | 61,497 | −32.3% |
| 2026 | 95,366 | 67,829 | −28.9% |
Against the same month a year earlier, Tesla China has grown in all ten months of 2026, and October's 10.30% is faster than September's 5.01%. Ten-month wholesale stands at 810,889, up 21.42%, after Tesla China's best quarter of the year: 275,111 cars from July to September.
2025's total is within reach
On TeslAnt's arithmetic from the same series, the ten-month total is 40,843 cars short of 2025's full-year 851,732 and 105,771 short of 2024's 916,660. Tesla China sold 86,700 cars in November 2025 alone, and 183,871 in November and December together.
China's market grew in October while Tesla's month fell. The CPCA estimates that wholesale of passenger new-energy vehicles (battery-electric cars, plug-in hybrids and range-extenders) reached about 1.8 million, up 12% year on year and 8% on September, which puts Tesla at about 3.8% of it. BYD sold 305,743 battery-electric cars in October, its first month above 300,000.
China or exports?
The split matters because the two halves of Shanghai's business have moved in opposite directions all year. In September, Chinese sales were 64,837, down 9.35%, and exports rose 58.29% to 30,529. Over nine months, Chinese sales fell 11.93% to 381,088 while exports rose 108.44% to 361,972, CnEVPost calculates.
In each earlier quarter of 2026, exports peaked in the first month: 50,644 in January, 53,522 in April and 66,330 in July. If October followed that pattern, the drop came from Chinese sales, but that remains an inference until the CPCA publishes the split. Tesla launched a five-year 0% financing plan with a halved down payment in China on 30 October, so November's figures will be the first to show its effect.
What it means in Europe
Shanghai builds the Model 3s sold in Europe, so its export line is the part of these figures that reaches European showrooms, by ship and weeks later. Tesla's October registrations rose sharply in several European markets, including Sweden, up 248%, and France, up 35%, with cars shipped in earlier months. October's export figure will show how much supply is heading into Europe's quarter-end deliveries in December.