HONG KONG – Chinese automaker BYD sold a record 526,409 fully electric vehicles (EVs) in the fourth quarter to become the new No. 1 in EVs.
China’s best-selling car brand reported EV and hybrid sales of 340,178 in December – including 190,754 all-electric cars – aided by aggressive end-of-year discounting, according to an exchange filing on Jan 1.
In total, BYD sold 3.01 million units in 2023, including 1.6 million fully electric vehicles.
Tesla, meanwhile, handed over 484,507 vehicles in the last three months, beating analysts’ average estimate for 483,173 deliveries.
While the Austin-based company exceeded its target to deliver 1.8 million vehicles for the year, the carmaker came up well short of an upside scenario Mr Elon Musk touted 12 months ago. After the chief executive officer told analysts the company had the potential to produce two million cars, a series of price cuts failed to stoke enough demand to support that much output.
The US carmaker has been gradually adjusting sticker costs in the United States and China, where it initiated a price war in late 2022 that extended into 2023.
Still, it generates more revenue and profit than BYD because it sells much higher-priced vehicles and relies on just two models for the lion’s share of its sales. The Model Y sport utility vehicle and Model 3 sedan accounted for 95 per cent of deliveries in the fourth quarter.
BYD’s full-year volumes were almost as much as its EV and hybrid sales over the previous five years combined.
The Shenzhen-based company, which had a three million annual sales target, saw rapid growth in 2023 that catapulted it into the top 10 ranking of global car sales for the first time.
BYD shares fell almost 24 per cent in 2023, with an accelerated decline in the stock since mid-November as competitive pressures, price cuts and concerns that it could not meet sales targets pummelled the company’s valuation.
Despite starting an industry price war in China, Tesla shares soared 102 per cent in 2023.
BYD continued its aggressive global expansion plans in the past 12 months, recently picking Hungary over other European countries to establish its first production line on the continent. The plant in the southern city of Szeged will produce EVs and plug-in hybrids for the European market and create thousands of jobs.
The news came despite an ongoing European Union anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese EVs.
China’s 2023 new energy vehicle retail sales are expected to rise 36.5 per cent year on year to about 7.75 million units, the nation’s Passenger Car Association said in preliminary estimates released in December. BLOOMBERG
