US electric carmaker Tesla Motors sold more than 3,000 cars in China, the world's biggest auto market, in the first nine months of this year, it said Friday.

The company has struggled in the Chinese market despite early positive media coverage, building up an inventory of unsold cars and laying off staff.

The firm's founder Elon Musk told the media earlier this year: "China is the only place on Earth that we have excess inventory".

It has lowered its global sales target for 2015 to between 50,000 and 55,000.

It has not given a specific goal for China, but called the 3,025 sales in the country "very good progress" in a statement sent to AFP.

Chinese media reports in March said that it sold almost 2,500 vehicles last year, but had an inventory of more than 2,000.

China's electric car market remains small for now. Nationwide sales of non-hybrid electric vehicles almost tripled to 87,531 in the first nine months, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

But that represented only about half of one percent of the total auto market.