Tesla has halted new orders for its Model S and Model X vehicles in China as the communist country and the USA exchange blows in an escalating trade war. Unlike several other Tesla EVs, Elon Musk’s company exports the S and X models to China from the United States.
Reuters reports that as ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China, Tesla has suspended taking new orders for its Model S and Model X vehicles on its Chinese website. Both models are manufactured in the US and imported to China, making them vulnerable to the recent tariff hikes imposed by both countries.
China raised its tariffs on US imports to 125 percent on Friday, following President Donald Trump’s decision to increase duties on Chinese goods to 145 percent. This escalation in the trade war has made US-made cars more expensive for Chinese consumers compared to locally produced electric vehicles.
The impact of the suspension was evident on Tesla’s Chinese website, where new orders for the Model S and Model X were no longer available. Although Tesla did not provide an official reason for this decision, the timing strongly suggests a direct correlation with the intensifying trade disputes.
Tesla’s Shanghai plant, which produces the Model 3 and Model Y cars for the Chinese market and export to regions like Europe, accounts for the majority of its sales in the country. However, the S and X are the company’s highest priced and highest margin vehicles.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has harshly criticized the use of reciprocal tariffs, including bitter personal attacks against Trump Economic Adviser Peter Navarro.
Breitbart News reported:
Elon Musk has continued his public feud with Trump economic adviser Peter Navarro for his role in implementing reciprocal tariffs, calling him a “moron” and “retard” who is “dumber than a sack of bricks.”
Musk, who leads the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), began publicly criticizing Navarro, President Donald Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, in a series of Saturday X posts.
“A PhD in Econ from Harvard is a bad thing, not a good thing,” the tech mogul wrote of Navarro’s degree. “Results in the ego/brains>>1 problem.”
In another comment that has since been deleted, Musk argued that Navarro “ain’t built sh*t.”
Stock in Tesla, Musk’s electric vehicle (EV) company, has lost more than 38 percent of its value so far this year, the Washington Post reported.
The billionaire DOGE chief’s comments came after Trump unveiled status quo-breaking tariffs from the White House last week, saying, “They charge us, we charge them.”
According to Li Yanwei, an analyst with the China Auto Dealers Association, China imported 1,553 Model X cars and 311 Model S cars in 2024. These two models accounted for less than 0.5 percent of Tesla’s total deliveries of more than 657,000 vehicles last year, indicating that the suspension may not have a significant impact on the company’s overall sales in China.
Tesla also faces increasing competition from local manufacturers such as BYD and others in the Chinese market. The company’s premium sedan and SUV models, along with the Cybertruck, have seen a 25 percent decline in deliveries globally in the first quarter. This decline is largely attributed to the lack of upgrades to these vehicles and the backlash against CEO Elon Musk’s political stance.
Read more at Reuters here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
