Chinese EV maker BYD outsells Tesla as Musk’s biz loses a key home-court advantage
Not fast enough… Tesla notched record EV sales in the final three months of last year (still feels weird to say that) after shipping nearly 485K electric vehicles. The delivery #s, which dropped yesterday, were a 20% jump from Q4 2022, but still not enough to hang on to the No. 1 spot. Chinese EV maker BYD sold 526K of its battery-only electric vehicles in the final quarter of ’23, topping Tesla for the first time.
Full speed: BYD’s popularity has soared in China, thanks mainly to its low prices. While BYD’s Seagull costs about $11K, Tesla’s most affordable Model 3 starts at nearly $40K.
Tight race: While Tesla still beat BYD in EV deliveries for the year (1.8M vs. 1.6M), the gap’s shrunk significantly since ’22.
Off the gas… Tesla’s long been the top pure-play EV maker, and still outearns BYD because of its high prices, but the crown's getting heavier. Yesterday, the list of electric cars that qualify for the full $7,500 tax credit from the US gov’t shrank to 13 models after the Biden admin disqualified cars with EV batteries made from a “foreign entity of concern” — ahem: China. While Tesla’s Model Y still meets the standards, the Cybertruck and some versions of the Model 3, S, and X do not. Next year, credit restrictions will expand to critical battery materials (like nickel and lithium) sourced outside the US.
Home courts can have big advantages… China’s the world’s largest auto market and makes up 90% of the global EV-battery supply chain. Western automakers have spent billions trying to ramp up battery-production efforts (like lithium mining) at home, but slowing EV sales could deter investments. FYI: China’s global EV market share is expected to nearly double to 33% by 2030.