(Yicai Global) March 15 -- Tesla marked up some of its China-made electric vehicle prices by as much as 5 percent today, just five days after a previous price hike. Although the US new energy vehicle giant did not give a reason why, the move comes amid skyrocketing battery material prices.

The latest price increases range between 2 percent and 5 percent and affect four models in the Model 3 and Model Y series, Tesla said on its website.

The Model Y Performance has the biggest markup of 5.03 percent to CNY417,900 (USD65,485). This is on top of the CNY10,000 (USD1,582) slapped on last week, meaning it now costs 7.7 percent more than it did before March 10. The price of the Model 3 Performance has gained the most with a 8.2 percent leap since March 10 to CNY368,000.

Surging nickel prices, a vital raw material used to make electric car batteries, may be linked to the price increase. Nickel futures prices surged almost three-and-a-half times on the London Metal Exchange to USD101,365 a ton on March 8 from the day before, causing the bourse to halt all trading in the metal.

Should nickel prices continue to rise, it will become difficult for the new energy industry to afford it, investment bank China International Capital Corporation said at the time. A USD30,000 jump to USD50,000 per ton will raise the cost of a vehicle with a 60-kilowatt-hour battery by about CNY10,000 (USD1,582).

Last year, Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory output more than tripled to 484,100 vehicles, very close to the 499,500 shipments the California-based firm made worldwide in 2020, according to company data released in January.

Editor: Kim Taylor