Oh Tesla, Tesla… business has been much better! Apparently, the scenario for the company founded by Elon Musk is worrying all over the world. After, as Aroged reported yesterday, that the company will put a significant portion of its employees on layoff, the latest news is that the brand sold just 1 (!) car during the month of January, in South Korea.
It goes without saying that this is an unthinkable number for a name as strong as Tesla, but the truth is that the numbers don’t lie. According to the Jalopnik news portal, based on this sales disaster, we have to take into account a series of issues that help explain the phenomenon.
In South Korea, there are few charging points
From now on, a preponderant factor has to do with the lack of proper infrastructure for charging this type of car. Furthermore, the aforementioned source of information points out that the price and safety issues of the vehicle have made Koreans think twice about the purchase.
On this subject, Bloomberg carries out an even more detailed analysis. The source in question notes that there has been a strong decrease, not only in Tesla, but in everything involving electric vehicles, in general. To give you an idea, in the first month of the year alone, the drop was around 80% compared to December.
Illustrative Image: (via Tesla)
Koreans don’t appreciate the fact that the Tesla Y was made in China
In addition to the reasons mentioned above, there are two reasons that are considered to be of great importance for not purchasing Tesla vehicles. Firstly, the increase in interest rates, which causes purchasing power to decrease. Another reason behind this departure is the fact that Tesla’s new Model Y is manufactured in China.
According to reports, Koreans’ perception of the quality of what is manufactured in China is not exactly the best, which has caused Tesla’s popularity to visibly diminish in South Korea.
It ends up being a paradox, in that the same car was one of the best-selling cars in 2023, but it’s as people say: times change, desires change. In this case, it is even thought that these same desires may already be satisfied. According to Lee Hang-Koo, head of the Jeonbuk Institute of Automotive Convergence Technology, most Koreans who wanted to buy an electric car have already purchased one.
Recent times have not been exactly favorable for Tesla, however, experience tells us that, from one moment to the next, everything can change. Is the bad moment just passing by? Or is it really here to stay?