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Feb. 12 (NBD) – U.S. electric car manufacturer Tesla may see deficient demand for Tesla Model 3 in major markets.

As of January 4th, there were 13,773 orders for the Model 3 in Europe. The number of orders now increases to 17,044, yet 13 percent lower than the average monthly sales of 19,610 cars in the American market in the second half of last year.

Statistics shows that the European luxury car market is about 1.5 times the size of the U.S. market, thus order volume in the European market should be higher than that for the United States.

The lackluster Model 3 sales in Europe are largely caused by fierce competition between Tesla and traditional electric car makers.

Audi's all-electric e-tron SUV, which hit the European market this month, has reaped pre-orders for 20,000 units by December 7, 2018, with a 200-euro (230-U.S. dollar) deposit for each order.

In the fourth quarter of last year, Jaguar I-Pace SUV outsold Tesla's Model S and X in the Netherlands, the second largest market after the United States for Tesla.

In the Chinese market, the American car maker faces a dipping sales volume of cars.

Last year, 28.08 million vehicles were sold, marking a decline of 2.76 percent, the first-ever negative sales growth since 1990, according to data from China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Besides, the aggressive expansion of local car brands such as Nio place pressure on the U.S. electric car firm.

Enjoying subsidies from Chinese government, Nio presents better performance than Tesla. In the second half of 2018, sales volume of Nio ES8 reached 2.2 times the total sales of Tesla Model S and X.

In an effort to boost sales, Tesla has slashed the price of Model S and Model X by an average 22 percent through two rounds of price cuts. The starting price for Model 3 was also reduced from 540,000 yuan (79,687 U.S. dollars) at the end of last year to the current's 499,000 yuan (73637 U.S. dollars).

The price reduction triggered concerns over Tesla's profitability this year.

To restrain costs and improve productivity of Model 3, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on January 18 that more than 3,000 jobs will be cut.

About 150 of 230 employees have left Tesla's North American facility in Las Vegas that delivers Model 3 orders to buyers in the United States and Canada, news outlet Securities Daily reported. The deliveries are likely to slow down sharply in the future as a result of mass layoffs.

A downsized employee revealed an unknown number of former delivery team members are transferred to other departments.

Email: zhanglingxiao@nbd.com.cn