Tesla's U.S. Plant Remain Locked down
Korean auto industry insiders say that American electric vehicle (EV) maker Tesla, which quickly expanded its presence in the Korean imported car and EV markets, will hardly be able to avoid the impact of COVID-19. The operation of Tesla’s plant in the United States has stopped since the beginning of March and it is unclear when the plant will restart. Some predict that it will be difficult to open the plant again until June.
Tesla sold 2,415 units of Model 3 in Korea in March, said the CarIsYou Data Research Institute on April 15. This is the highest number of sales for a single model in the Korean imported car and EV markets.
Tesla Korea is not a member of the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributors Association (KAIDA), so its data are not included in the association's monthly new car registration data. When combining data from KAIDA and the CarIsYou Data Research Center, it was the Volkswagen Tiguan (1,022 units of 2.0 TDI models) that sold most in March. The sales volume of Model 3 is more than twice that of the Tiguan. Its sales eclipsed those of the Hyundai Kona Electric (1,391 units), the best selling Korean EV in March.
Tesla has made the largest contribution to the nation’s EV registration topping the 100,000 mark in March. It took about eight years for the domestic EV market to reach 100,000 units. Public sales of EVs started in Korea in 2013. According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, the number of EVs registered in Korea increased from 93,572 in February to 100,229 in March. Tesla Korea is believed to have accounted for about 40 percent of the increase in March.
They note that Tesla, who had been on a roll in Korea, will suffer from the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The Tesla plant in the United States has produced oxygen masks instead of automobiles as the COVID-19 virus spread. Even the mask production was stopped in March at the order of public health authorities in the United States. Local experts predicted that Tesla's U.S. plant will not be able to restart until June.