Chinese automaker BYD sold more electric vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2023 than U.S. automaker Tesla, which has held the top spot in the sector so far.
Thus, in the last three months of last year, the Chinese company sold 525,409 battery-powered vehicles worldwide, while Tesla’s corresponding sales figure for the same period was 484,507 vehicles, CNN reports.
However, Tesla remained in first place for the entire year. During 2023, Tesla sold 1.8 million electric vehicles, while BYD sold 1.57 million electric vehicles and 1.44 million hybrids. Sales volume of BYD electric vehicles increased by up to 73% during the year.
BYD has become a symbol of China’s growing electric car industry. In addition to contributions from high-profile investors such as Warren Buffett, BYD and other Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers are backed by the Chinese government.
“China is now a leader in manufacturing and is improving its competitive advantage by relying on a huge domestic market,” analysts at French investment bank Natixis Asia wrote in a November report.
In addition to a large market and government subsidies, Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers benefit from cheap labor and secure supply chains.
At the same time, the cooling Chinese economy and increased competition in the domestic market have reduced the profits of Chinese automakers.
Last January, Tesla cut prices to attract customers in the Chinese market amid falling demand, to which other companies responded with similar moves. The price war unleashed reduced the profit margins of Chinese automakers to 5% in the first 11 months of 2023. In 2022 the profit margin of companies in the sector was 5.7% and in 2021 it was 6.1%. .
To compensate for losses in the domestic market, Chinese automakers have begun to bet on the markets of Europe, Australia and Southeast Asia.
The European Commission is concerned about China’s growing imports of electric vehicles and launched an investigation into prices in the Chinese car market in the autumn. According to the Commission, there is reason to believe that Chinese companies are involved in dumping practices, i.e. selling their electric cars in the European Union at a price lower than the cost price.
However, BYD announced in December the construction of an electric car factory in Hungary, which would be the company’s first car factory in Europe. Producing cars in the EU would allow the Chinese automaker to avoid EU safeguard duties that could follow the investigation.
2024-01-02 16:04:00
chinas-byd-has-become-the-worlds-largest-electric-vehicle-seller-foreign-country