According to figures released by Tesla and BYD, Chinese EV makers, BYD has surpassed the sales of Tesla for the first time in the October to December 2023 quarter at 520,000 units sold compared to Tesla’s 480,000 units worldwide.
Though the achievement is significant, BYD is not yet the overall winner on an annual basis as Tesla shipped more than 1.8 million vehicles in total in 2023 compared to BYD who shipped 1.6 million electric vehicles.
In terms of market position in the overall automotive sphere, BYD is on the same level as Japan’s Suzuki Motor’s who shipped 2.96 million units worldwide, compared to BYD’s 2.96 million units.
China as a whole has surpassed Japan as the world’s biggest automotive exporter, a fact which we explored in our article about EV oversupply here.
As reported by Foreign Policy, “The government in China went all in on EVs,” said Erica Downs, an expert in Chinese energy markets at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.
“This was an industry that they wanted to develop, and they made sure that they had the different building blocks needed for success in place—so there were subsidies to EV manufacturers; there were subsidies to EV buyers; and they’ve been working on making sure there is adequate charging infrastructure.”
It seems the investment by China in the automotive market is finally paying off with BYD being the forerunner of the movement.
In the EV space, China currently has more than 300 companies working on EVs and BYD has lead the pack in terms of sales as well as reputation.
