Tesla Model S (Photo : Reuters)
Tesla Motors has been sluggish in terms of its sales from its market in China and Chinese media are now reporting that the electronic vehicle maker has more than 2,000 unsold Model S cars being stored on their country.
In 2014, Tesla imported exactly 4,800 Model S cars in China.
However, the California-based car company only sold 2499 units, according to Car News China, which means that 2,301 Model S cars were left unsold.
The number has already been confirmed by several employees of Tesla and some insiders of the Chinese media.
Another anonymous insider talking to the Chinese media said that the languished Model S cars from Tesla are due to cancelled orders in China. The cancellation orders significantly went up after Tesla unveiled its new P85D, which resulted in most of the customers to drop their order and opted for the new Tesla model instead.
Besides the new Tesla car, another reason could be due to Tesla China's deposit system. A buyer would need to deposit 15,000 yuan (around $2400) to order the car and another 250,000 yuan (around $40,000) when the ordered vehicle is ready to be delivered to the country. However, Tesla China failed to collect the second deposit, which led to more cancellations.
The reports come after Tesla reportedly laid off about 200 if its employees in China, according to IB Times.
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk said in February that the sales team in China misinformed their potential customers.
"This sounds kind of brain dead, but our sales team was telling people that it was difficult to charge in China. Even though this is not true, like that is pretty silly," said Musk.
