Unlike most foreign automakers in China, Tesla has yet to establish local production and still solely relies on exporting its vehicles from California to the largest auto market in the world.

Nonetheless, Tesla managed to double its sales in China last year as it is significantly expanding its presence in the country.

Tesla was off to a tough start in China in 2014 and 2015, but things started to improve for them in the country in 2016 when they managed to triple their sales to over $1 billion during the year.

The automaker wasn’t able to maintain the insane growth rate in 2017, but the company confirmed today that it still managed to double sales in China to over $2 billion in 2017.

They don’t confirm the number of cars sold per market, but it has to represent over 20,000 vehicles based on their average sale price.

Sales were helped in 2017 by China’s surprising demand for Tesla’s Model X. The vehicle has been extremely popular in the country. For example, look at the number of Model X SUVs at this Tesla owners meet-up in Shenzhen, China last month (images by Dennis Chang):

In order to support its growing fleet in China, Tesla has been significantly expanding its presence in the country. Tesla China confirmed yesterday that it has over 1,000 Superchargers and 2,000 Destination Chargers across the country.

As we previously reported, Tesla’s three largest Supercharger stations in the world are located in China. The Chinese government also significantly expanded public charging stations in the country last year and Tesla added a new dual connector charge port design for Model S and Model X in order to support the government’s charging standard.

The automaker has also expanded its retail and service presence to over 35 locations in 2017.

Now, Tesla’s next phase in China is to establish local production in order to avoid import duties – especially with the imminent launch of the Model 3 in the country.

Last year, Tesla finally confirmed working with the Shanghai government to establish a manufacturing facility in the region, but actual production appears to still be a few years away.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.