Tesla's Chinese Rival BYD Defers US Debut, Decision Comes Weeks After Reducing Shift Timings At China Plants

BYD Co., Ltd. BYDDF BYDDY does not propose to foray into the U.S. passenger car market for now, founder Wang Chuanfu said.
At a post-earnings briefing on Wednesday, the Chinese Tesla, Inc TSLA rival said that its home market of China has already entered a “full-expansion phase” for new-energy vehicles, Bloomberg reports.
The U.S. is the next biggest EV market after China, where a price war has erupted between BYD, Tesla, and other EV makers.
Wang does not foresee any impact from President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act due to the move.
The Warren Buffett-backed EV maker sold 1.86 million electric and plug-in hybrids in 2022, accounting for 30% of all new-energy vehicle sales in China, with half of them battery-only EVs. In comparison, Tesla delivered 1.31 million EVs globally.
BYD has expanded its footprint overseas, including Norway, Denmark, the U.K., Thailand, and Australia.
Wang predicted that developing clean-energy vehicles would lead to a reshuffling within the global auto industry.
Recently, BYD reduced shifts at two auto assembly plants in China, signifying weaker demand in the largest auto market.
Reportedly, BYD has been cutting back on production in the face of weaker industry-wide demand in China since the start of the year.
BYD has also been slowing output since the start of the year when industry-wide sales began to stall, and China terminated a national subsidy program for EVs.
Analysts have credited aggressive discounts for creating some demand as other automakers borrowed a leaf out of Tesla into a price war over market share, but industry-wide inventories have been piling.
Photo via Company

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