More than 2,800 of the luxury battery electric vehicles have been imported to China over the last several months, that company's numbers show. But only 432 have received the license plates required to operate them on China's roads.
"It's very puzzling," said Junheng Li, JLWarren's head of research. "The cars are in China, but they're not being driven."
Li's best guess: The cars are being purchased by car "scalpers," who are snapping them up at the regular retail rate of about $120,000, hoping to "flip" them to third-party buyers.