Tesla Installs 25,000th Supercharger, Expands Reach To Mount Everest Base Camp

Tesla Inc TSLA has installed a Supercharger station at the Everest base camp located at Tingri in Tibet, on the route from Chengdu.

What Happened: The electric carmaker recently announced it has installed 25,000 fast-charging stations across the world and revealed one of its latest additions is inside the parking lot of the Roof of the World Hotel, about 100 km drive from Everest base camp.

Tesla is scaling up its supercharger installation amid rising competition in China from local companies like Nio Inc. NIO and Xpeng Inc. XPEV. According to a Tesmanian report, Tesla had installed 6,000 Supercharger stations in China by the beginning of March. 

As of the end of the first quarter, the automaker had increased the number of Supercharging stations worldwide to 2,699, a jump of 41% year-over-year and had installed 24,515 individual connectors, a jump of 44%.

See Also: Apple, Tesla Earnings Reports Show An Increasing Reliance On China As A Market

Why It Matters: Tesla’s reliance on China is growing. At the end of the first quarter, the region contributed about $3 billion of its overall $10.4 billion sales. Last year in the same period, $900 million out of a total $5.9 billion or 15.3% revenue was sourced from China.

The U.S. remains Tesla’s largest market but Elon Musk has predicted that in the long term, China will become Tesla’s largest market and the place “where we produce the most vehicles and have the most customers.”

In March, the California-based company registered 34,635 electric vehicles in China, three times more than the previous month. 

Price Action: Tesla shares closed 1.29% higher at $672.08 on Friday.

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Photo: Courtesy of Tesla.