TSLA Tesla Inc

By Yoko Kubota

BEIJING--China's car sales continued to grow in April from a year ago when sales were dented by the pandemic in the world's biggest auto market.

Sales of passenger cars hit 1.6 million vehicles last month, up 12.4% from a year earlier when the market was still grappling from the fallouts of the pandemic, China Passenger Car Association said Tuesday. Sales of electric cars nearly tripled to 163,000 vehicles, the association said.

In April, Tesla Inc. sold 25,845 made-in-China vehicles, the group's data showed. While a year-on-year comparison wasn't available, Tesla's sales dropped 27% from March, worse than the 12% month-on-month decline in overall electric vehicle sales.

Tesla's drop comes after a protester at an auto show in Shanghai climbed on top of the American EV maker's car, shouting allegations about faulty breaks. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company is developing a platform for car owners in China to access their driving data, it said last week.

Write to Yoko Kubota at yoko.kubota@wsj.com

--Raffaele Huang contribute to this report.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 11, 2021 02:58 ET (06:58 GMT)

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