Who is the largest EV seller in China width

China's Warren Buffett-backed BYD has dethroned Tesla as the world's largest electric vehicle maker, selling 77,000 more cars so far in 2022

• Shenzhen-based automaker BYD has soared past Tesla as the top-producing electric vehicle company.
• BYD sold 641,000 cars in the first half of 2022, compared to 564,000 sold by Elon Musk's firm.
• Tesla was hit by supply chain hiccups and a Shanghai lockdown this year, missing sales targets.

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BYD, a Chinese automaker backed by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, has soared past Tesla as the world's leading electric vehicle seller, according to company filings published Sunday on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Shenzhen-headquartered BYD sold 641,350 new energy vehicles in the first half of 2022, a 314.9% increase from its sales figures in the first half of 2021. Of those sales, 323,519 were battery electric vehicles.

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By comparison, Tesla delivered 564,743 vehicles in the first two quarters of 2022, faltering in the second quarter as a lockdown in Shanghai slowed production at its Gigafactory in the Chinese city.

BYD's shares have surged 36% since January, with the automaker approaching a one trillion Chinese yuan market capitalization, equal to around $149 billion. Beijing's push for citizens to cut down on their personal carbon emissions has helped BYD's rapid ascent as China's largest domestic automaker.

The EV company has continued to grow sales and share price despite a pollution probe into one of its factories in Hunan Province. The probe came after residents in the area reported suffering from nosebleeds, vomiting, and breathing troubles.

BYD's factories have been able to remain open throughout a series of regional lockdowns across China as they are largely based away from COVID hotspots like Shanghai, where Tesla has its largest Chinese presence.

Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory 3, responsible for half of its 2021 global production, was shut for 22 days in May because of the city's COVID lockdown. Even once the factory's production restarted, it fumbled as it attempted to reach pre-pandemic levels due to ongoing parts shortages.

Tesla overtaken by Chinas BYD as worlds biggest EV maker

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Elon Musks Tesla has been knocked off the top spot as the worlds best-selling electric-vehicle maker for the first time by BYD after recording fewer deliveries than its Chinese rival in the past quarter.

The US group handed over 484,000 cars in the fourth quarter, more than the 473,000 anticipated by analysts but not enough to hold on to its title after BYD reported record sales of battery-only vehicles of 526,000 for the same period.

Teslas dethroning by BYD reflects the rise of what was a little-known Chinese group only a decade ago, which Musk himself has publicly dismissed. While growth at the Warren Buffett-backed Chinese company has been mostly achieved on its home turf, BYD is sharpening its focus on finding new foreign markets including in Europe.

Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, said BYDs electric cars were becoming increasingly visible on European roads thanks to keen pricing.

BYDs success in chasing down Tesla also underlines the struggle of legacy automakers from the US, Europe, Japan and Korea to adapt to fast-changing consumer preferences for cheaper, smarter electric vehicles.

In a statement published in China, the Shenzhen-based group called itself the world champion for new energy vehicles after notching total annual sales of more than 3mn for 2023 across its vehicles which also include plug-in hybrid cars.

Teslas annual sales were 1.81mn vehicles in 2023, while BYD delivered 1.58mn fully electric cars.

Through much of the past 12 months, BYD benefited from price cuts sparked by Teslas attempt to chase market share, pushing consumers to consider Chinas lower-cost models, according to analysts.

For any doubters left in the west, I hope this is the final data point that points to BYDs strength and, as importantly, how China EV Inc has bullied its way on to the global stage, said Tu Le, founder of Beijing-based advisory company Sino Auto Insights.

He added that while both companies cut prices on some cars over the past year, Tesla did so much more dramatically, signalling that BYD could distance itself further from the US group over the coming year.

Still, WedbushSecurities analyst Dan Ives said it was an important quarter for Tesla to show strong deliveries and momentum heading into 2024.

Teslas annual sales of 1.8mn last year was a major achievement in a choppy macro [economic environment] for the electric vehicles sector, he added.

BYD was founded by Wang Chuanfu, a former university professor, in the mid-1990s. After focusing on manufacturing rechargeable batteries, including for mobile phones, the company expanded into the car industry in the early 2000s.

The Chinese groups early success prompted Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway to invest in the company in 2008. Despite relying on existing industry technology for many years, BYD has focused on stripping out costs from the production process.

Following years of state support and careful industrial planning by Beijing, Chinas automakers now leverage their countrys control over the production of almost every resource, material and component used to make electric vehicles.

BYDs vertically integrated structure it controls mines and produces batteries and chips has made it the envy of foreign rivals as the global car industry transitions away from the combustion engine.

At the end of last year six out of the top-selling EV models in China, the worlds largest car market, were BYD cars, according to Automobility, a Shanghai-based consultancy. While BYDs share of sales has expanded to more than 35 per cent, Tesla has struggled to keep up with the cadence of product launches by Chinese rivals, the consultancy added.

Electric vehicle market in China - statistics & facts

Like many countries in the world, China views electric vehicles (EVs) as a pathway for sustainable transportation because of their low emissions and high energy efficiency. The Chinese government has invested substantially in EV research and development, earning the highest

in 2021. Notably, China has by far the biggest EV industry in the world. As the largest EV manufacturer,

amounted to 3.5 million units in 2021, an increase of 1.6 times year-over-year.

reached approximately 102.2 billion U.S. dollars for the year, the highest in the Asia-Pacific region.

Widely promoting battery electric vehicles (BEVs)

In China, sometimes the word "electric vehicles" is used interchangeably with "new energy vehicles" or "alternative energy vehicles", with the only exception being the exclusion of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have been more popular than plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), with their respective

sales volumes

of 2.9 million and 600,000 units in the year 2021. During the year,

BEVs market share

in China soared to 10.9 percent, and such a figure is expected to further increase in the coming years. The reason for the widespread promotion of BEVs in China is that driving BEVs allows independence from oil consumption, emits zero CO

₂

, and produces very little noise. In addition, China's expanding EV charging infrastructure adds to the allure of BEVs. By 2021, the number of

public

and

private EV charging piles

in China reached nearly 1.2 million and 1.5 million, respectively.

Yet, BEVs have a relatively short driving range compared to PHEVs due to the limited energy storage capacity of the batteries. But this does not largely constrain Chinese consumers from buying them. During an

online customer survey

conducted in October 2021, Chinese consumers considered purchasing a BEV with a driving range of 258 miles, while participants from the United States expected at least 518 miles.

Which one is the best seller?

With the growing global rollout of EVs, Chinese EV manufacturers are becoming well-known. As Chinas top EV producer, BYD realized a

global EV market share

of 8.8 percent in 2021, behind only Tesla and Volkswagen Group. In the ranking of the

worlds best-selling EVs

that year, six Chinese models were among the top 10. For

passenger BEVs

, the joint venture SAIC-GM-Wuling is the front-runner in China, with sales of over 424,350 units in 2021, surpassing Tesla and BYD. Its Hongguang Mini EV model was ranked as the second best-selling model in the world, right behind the Tesla Model 3.

This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.