Tesla's China-made EV Sales in August up 3% yr/yr

16 June 2015, Ebringen: The logo of Tesla electric vehicle company is pictured on an S model vehicle. (dpa)
16 June 2015, Ebringen: The logo of Tesla electric vehicle company is pictured on an S model vehicle. (dpa)
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Tesla's China-made EV Sales in August up 3% yr/yr

16 June 2015, Ebringen: The logo of Tesla electric vehicle company is pictured on an S model vehicle. (dpa)
16 June 2015, Ebringen: The logo of Tesla electric vehicle company is pictured on an S model vehicle. (dpa)

Sales of US automaker Tesla's China-made electric vehicles grew 3% in August from a year earlier, data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) showed on Monday.

Deliveries of its China-made Model 3 and Model Y vehicles rose 17% from July, Reuters reported.

Chinese rival BYD, with its Dynasty and Ocean series of EVs and plug-in hybrids, posted a 35.3% year-on-year jump in passenger vehicle sales in August to a fresh monthly high of 370,854 units.

Other local EV competitors including Leapmotor and Li Auto also reported higher sales.

Tesla's rising China numbers, including domestic sales and exports to Europe and elsewhere, came amid extended incentives for local buyers as well as breakthroughs in winning over government backing.

An uptrend in Tesla's China sales seems to be underway in the third-quarter even though its local sales force has undergone downsizing as part of the US EV giant's global layoffs.

In July, Tesla saw a 78% year-on-year increase in deliveries in tier-three cities while its sales in the second-tier cities such as Hangzhou and Nanjing rose by 47%, data and analysis by China Merchants Bank International (CMBI) showed.

"We project Tesla's retail sales volume to hit 65,000 units in August aided by strong growth in smaller cities. Should such momentum continue in September, Tesla may post the highest quarterly sales volume in China in 3Q24," said Shi Ji, an analyst with CMBI in Hong Kong.

Tesla has been offering a financing plan with a zero-interest loan of up to five years since April to attract buyers who tend to be more cautious with spending on big-ticket items in a sputtering economy.

The company has won endorsement from several local governments which have deemed Tesla cars eligible for official car purchases in recent weeks.

The country's top auto industry association said in April the data collection by Tesla vehicles in China was compliant, paving the way for Tesla cars to enter some government compounds that they used to be banned from.



Google Will Pay Texas $1.4 Billion to Settle Claims the Company Collected Users’ Data without Permission

A Google logo is seen at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, US, November 1, 2018. (Reuters)
A Google logo is seen at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, US, November 1, 2018. (Reuters)
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Google Will Pay Texas $1.4 Billion to Settle Claims the Company Collected Users’ Data without Permission

A Google logo is seen at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, US, November 1, 2018. (Reuters)
A Google logo is seen at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, US, November 1, 2018. (Reuters)

Google will pay $1.4 billion to Texas to settle claims the company collected users' data without permission, the state’s attorney general announced Friday.

Attorney General Ken Paxton described the settlement as sending a message to tech companies that he will not allow them to make money off of “selling away our rights and freedoms.”

“In Texas, Big Tech is not above the law,” Paxton said in a statement. “For years, Google secretly tracked people’s movements, private searches, and even their voiceprints and facial geometry through their products and services. I fought back and won.”

The agreement settles several claims Texas made against the search giant in 2022 related to geolocation, incognito searches and biometric data. The state argued Google was “unlawfully tracking and collecting users’ private data.”

Paxton claimed, for example, that Google collected millions of biometric identifiers, including voiceprints and records of face geometry, through such products and services as Google Photos and Google Assistant.

Google spokesperson José Castañeda said the agreement settles an array of “old claims,” some of which relate to product policies the company has already changed.

“We are pleased to put them behind us, and we will continue to build robust privacy controls into our services,” he said in a statement.

The company also clarified that the settlement does not require any new product changes.

Paxton said the $1.4 billion is the largest amount won by any state in a settlement with Google over this type of data-privacy violations.

Texas previously reached two other key settlements with Google within the last two years, including one in December 2023 in which the company agreed to pay $700 million and make several other concessions to settle allegations that it had been stifling competition against its Android app store.

Meta has also agreed to a $1.4 billion settlement with Texas in a privacy lawsuit over allegations that the tech giant used users' biometric data without their permission.