Tesla China Shines At The Chengdu Motor Show 2020

You may have seen some beautiful purple Tesla vehicles — the Model X and 3 — floating around Twitter. In fact, I made one of the images my lock screen photo (the purple Model X in the tweet below). Purple is my favorite color, and these photos are beautiful.

Tesla China shared a tweet expressing its gratitude for Tesla owners who volunteered at the Chengdu Motor Show. Not only is China falling in love with Tesla, but China is the world’s largest economy. For Tesla to be doing so well there is something that should be noted.

So, What’s With The Purple Teslas?

Tesla partnered with the Chinese version of the PUBG mobile game (Game of Peace), which just added the Model 3. Tesla China tweeted a video of the purple Tesla and announced that limited edition skins would be released.

Another tweet from Tesla China was incredibly fun — a clip of the game video. In this clip, a mysterious package was dropped off at Giga Shanghai in a similar fashion as the game’s mobile loot drops. However, Tesla, being Tesla, made this happen in real life. Tesla brought an actual drop package to the Gigafactory, and it had a beautiful purple Model 3 inside.

Tesla China also rolled out limited edition skins related to Game for Peace. The poster below is my current lock screen photo on my phone. (My Cybertruck will be purple!) (The tweet was a few days ago so it’s available now for those playing.)

Chengdu Motor Show 2020

Jay in Shanghai shared these beautiful photos of a purple Model X that was also uncovered. It’s wrapped in the Game for Peace (PUBG Mobile) wrap.

The Chengdu Motor Show opened on July 24 and will close on August 2. There will be another one September 5–14.

Tesla’s Success In China

Tesla’s success in China was founded in the fast-paced building of its Shanghai Gigafactory. However, this is just the beginning for Tesla, as we rush through 2020 and approach the one-year anniversary of the official date that Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 came online and started producing Model 3 vehicles. In October 2019, Tesla started production of the Made-In-China Model 3 vehicles.

Since its major splash into the deep waters of the Chinese market, Tesla has been doing pretty well, even during the pandemic. Before the pandemic came to the U.S., Tesla was the only American company with a factory in China that was affected by the lockdown. Yes, other American and foreign companies have partnerships in China, but Tesla is the only company that actually fully owns its factory there.

While America was being locked down, Tesla opened an online store in China just as theirs was being lifted. Tesla’s store in Alibaba’s Tmall sells Tesla car parts and other related merchandise. It also allows customers to request test drives. In May, Viya, a popular influencer on China’s Taobao shopping platform, demonstrated Tesla’s features to at least 4 million viewers watching the livestream broadcast.

Viya’s popularity enables her to help businesses sell completely out of stock when featuring them on the Taobao website. Four million viewers saw Viya in a Tesla and many likely decided to either buy one or learn more about Tesla after that. And those who bought one most likely shared rides with their friends and family for more sales — word of mouth advertising.

While Brian Gu, President of Xpeng Motors, lamented about the difficulties that EV startups have had and how the coronavirus pandemic will “aggravate these issues,” Tesla has been doing rather well. Despite being closed, Tesla’s total deliveries of MIC vehicles were over 10,000 in March. In Q2, Tesla delivered around 30,000 vehicles in China — meaning that China represented around one-third of Tesla’s global deliveries for the second quarter.

While Tesla’s success in China was fully expected by supporters and failure predicted by critics, its success during the challenges of a global pandemic is also something to be celebrated. While legacy automakers such as GM, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler reported sales that had fallen 30% or more in the second quarter, the story was completely opposite for Tesla.

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