Tesla faces bumpy ride in China,Yunnan Adventure Travel

Tesla faces bumpy ride in China

Like Steve Jobs, the founder of Tesla Motors Elon Musk is called a genius and ishighly skilled in hype.

With its high-profile debut, the Tesla seems to harbor ambitions to refuel China's struggling newenergy vehicle market. The company has engineered publicity stunts and stimulated stocks onthe country's sluggish A share market.

China, with its abundant local policy hurdles, is proving a hard nut to crack for the US upstart.

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As part of Tesla's marketing strategy, the model S, thecarmaker's pride and joy, was priced at 734,000 yuan($121,300), half the price of an equivalent imported gasolinesedan, but still too high to intrigue China's price-savvybuyers. The model S is nearly three times the price ofChina's own electric sedan, which will certainly put a damperon Tesla's sales.

Besides, Chinese consumers appeared to be uninterestedin expensive environmentally friendly cars, Jia Xinguang, aseasoned auto analysts said.

Jia noted that buyers were more inclined toward gasolinevehicles that provide a better driving experience at the sameor lower price.

The disinterest was directly reflected in sluggish sales ofpure electric and hybrid vehicles last year, accounting forless than 0.1 percent of the market and contrasting sharplywith total vehicle transactions.

In 2013, 22 million new cars rolled onto Chinese roads,China's fifth straight year as the world's biggest auto market.Tesla is out of step with China's automobile boom, despite the expected explosion in newenergy cars, top-down government aid, stronger environmental awareness and a threatenedenergy crisis.

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