Tesla just had its strongest quarter in China, Bloomberg reports.
Elon Musk, the automotive company’s CEO, broke the news to Chinese media during a trip to Beijing last week. 1,345 units were sold in the country in the third quarter, ending in September, marking Tesla’s highest sales quarter in the country since entering the Chinese market last year.
797 Teslas were sold in the first quarter of 2015 and 883 were sold in the second, meaning nearly as many cars were sold in this past quarter alone as were sold in the first two combined. This could be a step in the right direction after Tesla has had difficulty making an impact in the country.
China is the largest car market and, with unmatched pollution problems, should be the largest electric vehicle market. However, this hasn’t been reflected in the company’s past sales. Tesla cut jobs earlier this year after failing to meet ambitious sales targets.
The company hopes that sales will boost even higher next year when it debuts its Model X SUV in China during the first half of 2016, though it was originally scheduled to be released this summer.
In an interview with Xinhua News Agency, Musk claimed that Tesla sales in China could be on track to match U.S. sales within five or six years. The company plans to release third quarter U.S. sales on November 3, but the second quarter saw a record high of 11,532 delivered vehicles.
