Tesla under BYD pressure

BYD has overtaken Tesla to become the world’s top-selling manufacturer of electric cars.

The Chinese company, which has been backed by US investment billionaire Warren Buffett since 2008, reports that it produced 3.02 million “new energy vehicles” in 2023 – ahead of Tesla, which announced on January 2 that it made 1.84m.

However, BYD’s sales figures include 1.6m battery-only cars and 1.4m hybrids, which means Tesla is still the leader in the production of battery electric vehicles (BEVs).

Nevertheless, in the final quarter of last year, BYD outsold Tesla when it came to BEVs – 526,000 to 484,000 – for the first time.

Most of BYD’s vehicles sell at lower prices than Tesla’s, which gets about 20 per cent of its sales from the Chinese market.

Chinese electric-car makers, such as BYD and Nio, have set their sights on becoming major players in international markets with a particular focus on Europe.

Hong Kong-listed BYD, which was founded by former university professor Wang Chuanfu, started in 1995 developing batteries.