China’s BYD overtakes Tesla’s electric car sales in last quarter of 2023

Models pose with a BYD car in Japan.Reuters

In the final three months of 2023, BYD, a Chinese firm, sold more electric cars than Tesla, owned by Musk Elon.

In the last quarter of 2023, BYD reported on Monday that it had sold a report 526, 000 battery-only cars.

It was the first quarter that Tesla’s battery-only profits had surpassed theirs. The US-based company has observed a gradual increase in demand as saving prices rise.

But, Mr. Musk’s Tesla continued to sell more throughout the entire year of 2023.

Tesla announced on Tuesday that it had produced 1.8 million electric cars overall and 484,500 in the final three months of 2023.

Sales increased by 20 % from the same period in 2022 and picked up speed from earlier 2023, proving that the end-of-year performance was better than analysts had anticipated. The third was a” distinct win” for Tesla, according to scientist Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities.

But it did n’t live up to expectations. Mr. Musk stated in January of last year that Tesla had the potential to make two million shipments by 2023.

The company consistently reduced prices in an effort to entice customers.

BYD’s accomplishment of this step serves as a constant reminder of the difficulties the company must overcome in order to establish the electric car sector.

According to Susannah Streeter, mind of wealth and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, BYD’s acceleration into the fast street “is new evidence of how competitive the Volt market has become and how difficult it will be for Tesla to turn back to lead the pack.”

Shenzen-based BYD sold more than 3 million so-called new energy vehicles ( NEVs ), which include hybrids and battery-only vehicles, for the entire year.

According to the company, nearly 1.6 million of its overall sales were battery-only vehicles.

In 1995, Wang Chuanfu, the CEO of BYD, co-founded the company with his niece in Shenzhen.

The business established a reputation for producing rechargeable batteries that competed with more expensive Chinese goods and were used in phones, laptops, and other electronics.

In 2002, it began trading shares on the stock exchange, and it expanded by buying Qinchuan Automobile Company, a struggling state-owned automaker.

Berkshire Hathaway, owned by seasoned US investment Warren Buffett, has been a stockholder of BYD since 2008.

Experts claim that BYD’s expansion is due to its initial business, chargers. Making them in-house saves BYD a ton of money because they are among the most costly components of anEV.

For chargers, some of BYD’s rivals rely on third-party producers.

BYD’s power business contributed to its flexibility in cutting costs quickly at the end of 2023, increasing sales, which increased by 70 % in just December.