Tesla sales rise in China thanks to incentives, can it save its quarter?
Tesla sales are rising in China thanks to incentives put in place by the automaker on top of state incentives going away by the end of the year.
Is enough to save Tesla’s quarter and its whole year?
Tesla aims to deliver a record number of more than 515,000 vehicles in Q4 in order for its sales not to be down for the whole year. That’s ~30,000 more vehicles than Tesla’s last record quarter, which was Q4 2023.
China is Tesla’s most important market and the world’s most important EV market.
In many ways, the Chinese can make or break Tesla’s record delivery goal for the quarter.
The latest insurance data is in for November, and it points to Tesla delivering just short of 70,000 vehicles – up significantly year-over-year (via Car News China):
However, while Tesla’s domestic sales are up in the Chinese market, Tesla’s wholesale from China (all cars built domestically for both the local market and exports) are down in November.
The domestic results are expected to be even stronger in December due to the incentives in place.
Tesla recently introduced a new ¥10,000, the equivalent of $1,380 USD, discount on Model Y, its most popular vehicle, if buyers take delivery by the end of December.
It’s the first time in a while that Tesla is discounting vehicles in China, but the automaker has been offering subsidized 0% interest loans to encourage sales most of the year.
On top of that, China has a ¥20,000 yuan ($2,700 USD) cash for clunkers incentive for people who exchange their older and higher emission vehicles for an electric car. The incentive is going away next year, which is incentivizing EV sales at the end of this year.
Electrek’s Take
Things are looking good for Tesla in China. With this momentum in November and all the incentives in place for December, it will likely be a record quarter for Tesla.
However, the question is whether it will be enough to counter the sales decline in Europe and cover the ~30,000 extra vehicles that Tesla needs to deliver to achieve its goal.
I think China should cover one of those issues, but not both. North America, which is more opaque to track, will have to cover the other.
Tesla has record incentives in place in the US and Canada to address this. I think it has a real shot at delivering 515,000 vehicles in the quarter.
But at what cost, with all these incentives, and what does it mean for Tesla in 2025? I guess that’s a problem for later.
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Your next camping trip is about to get an upgrade. Kia just dropped two new electric van concepts based on the PV5. With AI-powered home appliances like a refrigerator and microwave, and even a wine cellar, Kia’s new PV5 “Speilraum” is an electric van built for camping and more.
Meet the Kia PV5 Spielraum: An electric van for camping
Kia wasn’t lying when it said its first electric van would offer something for everyone. At the 2025 Seoul Mobility Show on Thursday, Kia and LG Electronics unveiled two new electric van concepts based on the PV5.
The Spielraum electric vans are built for more than just getting you from one place to another. With LG’s AI-powered home appliances, custom interiors, and a wine cellar, the Speilraum models take the PV5 to the next level.
Kia unveiled two new concept vans, the Spielraum Studio and Spielraum Glow cabin. For those wondering, the term Spielraum is German for “Play Space” or leeway. In other words, Kia is giving you more freedom to move.
The Studio version is designed as a mobile workspace with LG appliances like smart mirrors and a coffee pot. Using AI, the system can actually determine how long your trip will take and will recommend when to use the appliances.
Even more exciting (at least for the vanlifers out there), the Glow cabin converts the PV5 into a mobile camper van.
With a refrigerator, microwave oven, and added wine cellar (you know, for those long trips), Kia’s electric van is sure to upgrade your next camping trip.
Kia and LG signed an MOU and plan to launch production versions of the Spielraum electric vans in the second half of 2026. The South Korean companies are also developing a new series of advanced home appliances and other AI solutions that could be included in the vans when they arrive.
The PV5 will initially be available in Passenger, Cargo, and Chassis Cab setups. However, Kia plans to introduce several new versions, including a Light Camper model.
At 4,695 mm long, 1,895 mm wide, and 1,899 mm tall, the Kia PV5 passenger electric van is slightly smaller than the European-spec Volkswagen ID.Buzz (4,712 mm long, 1,985 mm wide, 1,937 mm tall).
With the larger 71.2 kWh battery pack, Kia’s electric van offers up to 400 km (249 miles) of WLTP driving range. It can also fast charge (10% to 80%) in about 30 mins to get you back on the road.
Kia will launch the PV5 in Europe and Korea later this year, with a global rollout scheduled for 2026. Ahead of its official debut, we got a closer look at the PV5 on public roads last month (check it out here).
Would you take the PV5 Spielraum Glow cabin for camping? Or are you going with the Studio version? Let us know in the comments.
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Tesla Cybertruck owners are starting to get the fix for the truck’s recent recall related to a falling trim. The fix is ridiculous for a $80,000-$100,000 vehicle as it leaves a weld burn and a panel gap.
Last month, Electrek reported that Tesla had quietly put a containment hold on Cybertruck deliveries.
While the reason was not confirmed at the time, we reported that we suspected that it was a problem with the cantrail, a decorative trim that covers the roof ledge of a vehicle. For the Cybertruck, it consists of the highlighted section below:
A week later, Tesla announced that it recalled all Cybertrucks ever made over an issue with the cantrail: it is falling off the Cybertruck.
Now, some Tesla Cybertruck owners are starting to receive the “fix” for the recall, but it is quite disappointing for what is a $80,000 to $100,000 vehicle.
A Cybertruck owner in New Jersey was already having issues with his cantrail and had to have his tent system installed, so his truck was already at the service center when the recall happened. He was given back his truck with the fix, but he was disappointed with the results, which left a mark on the cantrail and a significant panel gap. He shared pictures via the Cybertruck Owners Club:
According to the recall notice, the fix is as simple as removing the trim, applying some butyl patches, and reapplying the trim with two new nuts to secure it.
In the case of this Cybertruck, the new nut is leaving a significant gap on the chassis that Tesla should never have felt acceptable to deliver to a customer.
As for the burn or rust mark, the owner speculated that it was a weld mark as they weld the new nut, but there’s no welding required in the fix. Therefore, it’s not clear what happened, but there’s clearly a mark where the new nut is located.
Here’s a video of the process:
Electrek’s Take
Tesla is lucky. Many of its owners, especially with newer vehicle programs, like the Cybertruck, are early adopters who don’t mind dealing with issues like this.
However, this is a $80,000 to $100,000 vehicle, and most people expect a certain level of service with those vehicles.
You can’t have a remedy for a manufacturing defect that results in panel gaps and marks like this. It shouldn’t be acceptable, and Tesla shouldn’t feel good about giving back a vehicle like that to a customer.
On top of all of this, this is a pain for Cybertruck owners with wraps. They are going to have to rewrap the trim and it doesn’t look like Tesla is going to cover that.
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Romain Costaseca | Afp | Getty Images
As crypto prices rallied to record highs last year, venture investors piled into new bitcoin-related startups.
The number of pre-seed transactions in the market climbed 50% in 2024, according to a report published Thursday from Trammell Venture Partners. The data indicates that more entrepreneurs entered the bitcoin arena despite a cautious funding environment for the broader tech startup universe.
Bitcoin more than doubled in value last year, while ethereum rose by more than 40%. Early in the year, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved exchange-traded funds that invest directly in bitcoin and then extended the rule to ethereum, moves that brought a wider swath of investors into the market. The rally picked up steam in late 2024 after Donald Trump’s election victory, which was heavily funded by the crypto industry.
The early-stage startup boom dates back several years. According to the Trammell report, the number of pre-seed deals in the bitcoin-native category soared 767% from 2021 to 2024. Across all early-stage funding rounds, nearly $1.2 billion was invested during the four-year period.
“With four consecutive years of growth at the earliest stage of bitcoin startup formation, the data now confirm a sustained, long-term venture category trend,” said Christopher Calicott, managing director at Trammell, in an interview.
Venture capital broadly has been slow to rebound from a steep drop that followed a record 2021. Late that year, inflation started to jump, which led to increased interest rates and pushed investors out of risky assets. The market bounced back some in 2024, with U.S. venture investment climbing 30% to more than $215 billion from $165 billion in 2023, according to the National Venture Capital Association. The market peaked at $356 billion in 2021.
Trammell’s research focuses on companies that build with the assumption that bitcoin is the monetary asset of the future and use the bitcoin protocol stack to develop their products.
The numbers weren’t universally positive for the industry. Across all rounds as high as Series B, the total capital raised declined 22% in 2024.
But Calicott said he’s looking at the longer-term trend and the increase in the number of pre-seed deals. He said the renewed interest in building on blockchain is largely due to technical upgrades and increased confidence in bitcoin’s long-term resilience.
“Serious people no longer question whether bitcoin will remain 15 or 20 years into the future,” he said. “So the next question becomes: Is it possible to build what the founder is trying to achieve on bitcoin? Increasingly, the answer is yes.”
Trammell has been investing in bitcoin startups since 2014 and launched a dedicated bitcoin-native VC fund series in 2020. Its portfolio includes companies like Kraken, Unchained, Voltage and Vida Global.
Recent reports show momentum in crypto startup funding more widely. In February, crypto VC deals topped $1.1 billion, according to data and analytics firm The Tie.
PitchBook forecasts that crypto VC funding will surpass $18 billion in 2025, nearly doubling the $9.9 billion annual average from the 2023 to 2024 cycle. The firm expects greater institutional engagement from firms like BlackRock and Goldman Sachs to deepen investor trust and catalyze further capital inflows.
Joe McCann, a former software developer, is launching his third venture fund, and said this one will be “exclusively focused on consumer apps in crypto.”
He draws a direct parallel to the internet’s early days.
“In the 1990s, VCs were investing in physical infrastructure,” said McCann, who runs Asymmetric, a digital asset investment firm managing two hedge funds and two early-stage venture capital funds, with $250 million under management. “Ten years later, it was Groupon, Instagram, Facebook — apps built on top. That’s where we are with Web3 right now.”
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