Zang Yi charges her Tesla car at a charging point in Beijing, China, April 13, 2018. Thomas Peter | Reuters Tesla's vehicle sales in China sank 70 percent last month from a year ago, the country's passenger car association told Reuters on Tuesday, underscoring how the Sino-U.S. trade war is hurting the U.S. electric carmaker. An official from China Passenger Car Association said data from the industry body showed Tesla sold just 211 cars in the world's largest auto market in October. Tesla did not respond to repeated calls and written requests for comment on Tuesday. The electric carmaker, which imports all the cars it sells in China, said in October that tariff hikes on auto imports were hammering its sales there. In July, Beijing raised tariffs on imports of U.S. autos to 40 percent amid a worsening trade standoff with the United States. While so-called new-energy vehicle sales have continued to climb in China, wider auto sales have slowed sharply since the middle of the year, taking the market to the brink of its first annual sales contraction in almost three decades. Tesla, led by billionaire CEO Elon Musk, said last week it was cutting the price of its Model X and Model S cars in China in a shift in strategy to make the cars "more affordable" and absorb more of the hit from higher tariffs. Watch: How taxpayers boost Elon Musk and Tesla
Chinese sales of Tesla cars dropped by 70% YoY in October, according to figures from the China Passenger Car Association. Tesla sold just 211 vehicles to Chinese buyers in the month, highlighting the impact the ongoing US-China trade war is having on the electric vehicle manufacturer. The company has particularly been hit by an increased 40% tariff on US car imports introduced in July. Earlier in November, Tesla revealed plans to reduce the Chinese price of its Model X and S vehicles to make them more affordable.