Chinese automaker BYD surpassed Tesla as the world’s largest producer of pure battery electric vehicles in the final quarter of 2023, according to manufacturing numbers published this week.
Tesla said Tuesday that it produced more than 484,500 electric vehicles between October and December, an increase of more than 19% compared to the same period in 2022.
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But that growth was narrowly edged out by BYD, the Shenzhen-based automaker famously backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, which said Monday that it sold a record-breaking 526,509 purely electric vehicles in the final quarter of 2023.
In total, BYD produced more than 3 million energy vehicles for the year, higher than Tesla’s production rate, which was slightly shy of 1.9 million vehicles.
In previous years, comparing the two companies’ growth rates side-by-side has been difficult, primarily because Tesla manufactures only battery electric vehicles while BYD has manufactured both “pure” EVs and hybrid models.
In fact, when looking solely at battery EVs, Tesla did narrowly edge out BYD’s annual production for all of 2023 — manufacturing 1.84 million battery-only EVs compared to BYD, which produced just 1.6 million BEVs.
Nonetheless, the fourth-quarter numbers are a sign of mounting competition between Tesla and Chinese EV makers as they look to expand in foreign markets.
BYD’s lower prices have helped it gain a key foothold in some international markets, including in Europe and Mexico.
The Chinese automaker recently announced plans to open its first EV and hybrid manufacturing plant in Hungary — despite concerns from some EU leaders and the bloc’s investigation into subsidies for Chinese-made EVs.
It is also rumored to be planning another plant in Mexico in 2025, signaling broader international expansion.
“No one can match BYD on price. Period,” Dunne Insights analyst Michael Dunne said in a Tuesday newsletter, noting that BYD boasts “arguably the world’s most advanced battery,” an updated design, and higher quality compared to its earlier models.
The company is also “already winning a record number of customers in Australia, Brazil, Israel, Mexico, Sweden and Thailand (where it already controls 33% of the Kingdom’s EV market),” Dunne said.
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Any such growth in the United States is unlikely in the near term, however. Both Republicans and Democrats have remained staunchly committed to blocking imports of Chinese-made EVs in a bid to reshore domestic production and incentive investments in U.S. EV production and battery manufacturing.
Chinese companies would also be ineligible for the up-to-$7,500 EV consumer tax credit included in the Inflation Reduction Act.
