Can Tesla still be overtaken?
BYD and Tesla are both keen to become the largest electric car manufacturers, but only one can be the largest. BYD has released its figures for the last quarter of 2023 and this means that we can draw up the preliminary balance.
The Chinese BYD claims to have spent 3,2023,417new energy vehicles sold. Significantly more than the 1.86 million units that BYD managed to sell worldwide in 2022. By the way, not all of these are fully electric cars. BYD also includes its cars with (plug-in) hybrid powertrains under the heading ‘new energy vehicles’. According to Automotive News Europe and others, BYD will have sold around 1.6 million fully electric cars throughout 2023, including more than 525,000 units in the last quarter. In 2022, Tesla was the brand that sold the largest number of electric cars worldwide. But whether it can also call itself the largest EV manufacturer of 2023 remains to be seen.
Earlier in 2023, Tesla set a goal of selling 1.8 million electric cars in all of 2023. Tesla has not yet released fourth quarter 2023 figures. In the third quarter it delivered 435,059 cars. In the first and second quarters of 2023, 422,875 and 466,140 units respectively. This means that Tesla delivered a total of more than 1.32 million cars in the first three quarters of 2023. If Tesla also manages to achieve such a number in the last quarter of 2023, it would mean that it would manage to stay ahead of BYD for another year. The arrival of the updated Model 3 could have made a significant contribution to Tesla sales. It therefore seems almost certain that Tesla will soon be able to call itself the largest EV builder of 2023, although this is not entirely certain officially.
Both Tesla and BYD have implemented significant price reductions on their EVs this year – several times or more. Not only in Europe, but also in the United States and China.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl