BYD Ended 2023 By Surpassing The EV King In Battery-Only EV Sales For The First Time

BYD Company Limited BYDDY ended 2023 by beating the EV king, Tesla Inc TSLA. On the first day of 2024, BYD revealed it made more than 3 million new EVs. Tesla released its full year figures the following day, revealing that although its fourth quarter deliveries topped estimates, Tesla fell behind its main Chinese rival for the first time. 

Competition Is Heating Up

Before 2023 came to an end, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corporation XIACY announced it is entering the EV field, with its electric contender directly challenging Tesla and Porsche. Also, startups like Li Auto Inc LI reported its monthly record high in deliveries. In December, Li Auto delivered more than 50,000 vehicles, making a total of 376,030 vehicles for the full year. These figures imply Li Auto reported a delivery YoY growth of 182% YoY. Also, Li Auto remains on track to launch its first only battery-powered vehicle on March 1st.  

XPeng Inc XPEV kicked off the new year by launching its X9 MPV on Monday. Besides starting deliveries immediately, XPeng also reported double digit YoY percentage growth in deliveries for 2023. XPeng delivered 141,601 units throughout 2023, which translates to a 17% YoY rise. Also, XPeng reported record deliveries in December as they rose 78% YoY. Moreover, XPeng also revealed its fourth quarter deliveries surpassed the 60,000 mark for the first time.

BYD Achieved An Important Milestone

In the final quarter of 2023, BYD sold a record 526,000 battery-only vehicles, marking the first quarter of BYD outpacing Tesla in battery-only sales. For the whole year, BYD sold 3.02 million so-called-new energy vehicles. NEVs include battery-only vehicles and hybrids, with almost 1.6 million of BYD’s total sales being battery-only vehicles and 1.4 million being hybrids. But although it surpassed the 3 million mark, BYD still came a bit short of CLSA’s 3.05 million expectation.

 While most of its competitors rely on third-party manufacturers for batteries, BYD is saving a lot of money by making them in-house. This is why BYD was able to cut prices sharply at the end of the year, lifting sales by as much as 70% in December.

Don't dismiss Tesla just yet, as the EV king did keep its battery-only production leadership.

Tesla has been facing a demand slowdown as borrowing costs continued to rise. But it still delivered a record 484,500 electric vehicles during the last three months of 2023, topping LSEG’s estimate of 473,000. As for the full year, Tesla delivered on its promise by delivering 1.8 million EVs during 2023 which is still more than BYD that delivered 1.58 million fully electric cars.

The Future Is Promised To No One

Tesla got overtaken by BYD who is now the world’s biggest EV maker. The milestone achieved by BYD is a clear reminder of the challenges Tesla is facing in an increasingly competitive universe it once dominated. But, the fact that Tesla met its annual delivery goal in a choppy macroeconomic environment is still a big deal for the EV industry and Tesla itself and there’s also the fact that Tesla kept its leadership in battery-only production, yet it does not change the fact that BYD moved even closer to unseating Tesla as the world’s EV leader.

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