BEIJING (Reuters) -Sales of U.S. automaker Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)'s China-made electric vehicles rose 19.2% in September from a year earlier, data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed on Wednesday.
Deliveries of China-made Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, which are also exported to various markets including Europe, were up 1.9% from the previous month.
Tesla sold more than 72,000 EVs in China's domestic market, up 66% year-on-year, its best month this year, according to a company statement on Thursday.
Chinese rival BYD (SZ:002594), with its Dynasty and Ocean lineups of EVs and plug-in hybrids, recorded its best month with a 45.56% year-on-year increase in passenger vehicle sales to 417,603 units in September.
The 33,012 BYD cars, or 7.9% of the total sales, were sold overseas, BYD's filing showed.
With the climb in September, Tesla saw a 12% growth in China-made EV sales in the July-September period, its first quarterly rise this year.
The U.S. EV giant has been extending incentives to encourage consumers in the world's largest auto market where rivals including Xpeng (NYSE:XPEV) and Nio (NYSE:NIO) were racing to launch budget models.
It extended zero-interest financing in late September for some Model 3 and Model Y cars in China by another month to the end of October.
Tesla also plans to produce a six-seat variant of its best-selling, yet aging, Model Y in China from late 2025, Reuters reported.
The EV maker, due to unveil its robotaxi on Oct. 10, said it was on course to launch Full Self-Driving (FSD) advanced driver assistance software in China and Europe next year, pending approval from regulators.