Tesla's sales in China logged their best month for the year so far in August, with the US electric vehicle maker benefiting from brisk sales in smaller cities. Tesla said it sold more than 63,000 cars in the world's biggest auto market last month, a hefty 37% jump from July, but probably still down from August last year when it sold 64,694. While an encouraging improvement, its performance lags major Chinese rivals by a wide margin. BYD, the world's biggest EV maker, said its China passenger vehicle sales surged 35% in August from a year earlier to a record monthly high of 370,854. Other local EV competitors including Leapmotor and Li Auto also reported higher sales. Like many other automakers, Tesla has been badly bruised by a protracted price war in China where economic growth has also been sluggish and consumer confidence fragile. Its China sales declined 5% for the first half of the year.