BYD sold a record number of cars last year, including 525,409 battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in the three-month period to December 31, according to a US stock exchange filing.
Chinese automaker BYD has beaten Tesla in the final quarter of 2023 to become the world’s biggest electric car company.
Tesla confirmed yesterday that it sold 484,507 during the quarter – but it was still a record for the US maker and Elon Musk’s company still sold the most EVs in 2023 with a total of 1.8 million.
The end-of-year performance was better than analysts had expected, as sales rose 20% from the same period in 2022 and picked up pace from earlier in 2023. Analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities described the quarter as a “clear win” for Tesla.
A year ago Musk was bullish saying that Tesla had the potential to achieve two million deliveries in 2023 and he cut prices to try and meet his forecast.
The milestone achieved by BYD is a reminder of the challenges facing the Tesla, which is widely credited with the mainstream launch ofthe electric vehicle industry.
“As BYD has accelerated into the fast lane, it’s fresh evidence of just how competitive the EV market has become and how hard it will be for Tesla to swerve back to head the pack,” Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, told the BBC,
BYD Co. Ltd (Build Your Dreams) was founded in China by Wang Chuanfu in February 1995, initially focused on battery manufacture. It company has two major subsidiaries; BYD Electronic and BYD Automobile
In September 2008, Warren Buffet, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, chose to invest in Chinese company “BYD” over Elon Musk’s “Tesla”. MidAmerican Energy Holdings which is a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. invested about US$230 million for the 10 percent share of BYD at HK$8 per share.
