Hong Kong (China) Full Year 2017: Tesla snaps 10% share – 79% of sales in March

Tesla Model S. Picture by Flickr user Martijn ten Napel

* See the Top 45 All-brands by clicking on the title *

Hong Kong is back on BSCB with complete passenger car brands data for the Full Year 2017, which saw 37.292 new vehicles find a new home. The Top 6 brands are unchanged on 2016, with Toyota remaining the most popular carmaker in the territory with 19.4% share above Mercedes at 14.2% and BMW at 12.4%. The remainder of the Top 10 includes Honda, Audi, Volkswagen, Kia, Nissan and Lexus. But the big story for 2017 comes in 4th place: Tesla manages a round 10% share, that’s almost double its score in Norway where it ranks 7th with 5.3% share. Tesla sales are up 33% on 2016, however they have shown a very striking pattern in 2017. In March only, 2.939 Teslas were registered in Hong Kong, that’s 79% of its annual total for 2017. A surge related the capping on April 1 of a tax waiver on electric vehicles to HK$97.500, bringing the estimated tax on the cheapest Tesla to HK$414,035 and almost doubling its sticker price overnight to HK$1.03 million (US$132,337). It is suspected the Tesla dealer rushed registrations of Teslas in March to benefit from the tax waiver. As such, Tesla sales amounted to a measly 32 units between April and December 2017, with zero Tesla sold in April, May and August. Hong Kong is hailed by Elon Musk as the city in the world with the highest number of Teslas per capita. More info on Tesla sales in Hong Kong from the Financial Times here.

Full Year 2017 Top 45 All-brands vs. Full Year 2016 figures below.