Tesla's Shanghai gigafactory fuels surge in sales

Tesla posted total deliveries of 323,000 China-made vehicles worldwide in the year to July – 206,000 of them in China.

That is two-thirds of last year's total from its Shanghai plant, data from the China Passenger Car Association showed.

Tesla vehicle owners in China drove more than 2.8 billion kilometers – equal to 70,000 laps around the Earth – in the first half of the year as Tesla's charging network grew, a surge of 61 percent year on year.

The company said this reduced carbon-dioxide emissions by more than 650,000 tons.

The association has not yet released the estimated retail sales data of automakers in July, while the market forecasts a rollback in Tesla China's deliveries last month from its record high in June.

Last year, Tesla delivered more than 930,000 vehicles – a record high – with the Shanghai gigafactory contributing half the total.

The CPCA estimated total deliveries of 295,000 China-made Tesla vehicles in H1 this year, accounting for over half of the carmaker's 564,000 global deliveries.