BYD narrowed its gap to EV market-leader Tesla in 2023, selling almost 1.6 million electric cars globally.
The Chinese giant's total EV sales volume of 1,574,822 was a 13% shortfall on its American rival's tally of 1,808,581.
It was also a 73% improvement on on BYD's 2022 result of 911,140 EVs.
Although BYD failed to meet Tesla’s full-year result, it did emerge victorious in the final quarter of 2023, with 526,409 sales to 484,507.
Its EV sales are expected to rise significantly once again this year, given that it has now established a presence in several key European markets, including France, Germany and the UK.
Each of these markets also receives line-ups carefully targeted at segment leaders: the BYD Dolphin hatchback will comfortably undercut the big-selling MG 4 EV in the UK, the BYD Seal is cheaper than the facelifted Tesla Model 3 and the BYD Atto 3 is competitive against the Volkswagen ID 4.
Such is BYD’s commitment to Europe that it recently agreed to build an EV factory in Hungary, making it the first Chinese car manufacturer to do so in the region.
It aims to become Europe’s biggest seller of electric cars by 2030 and account for one in 10 of the region’s EV sales by 2030.
Notably, BYD sold no pure-ICE cars globally in 2023, having delivered 5049 the year prior.
Tesla, meanwhile, continues work to reduce the cost – and therefore improve the attainability – of its two mainstream models, the Model 3 and Model Y.
The Model 3's facelift, for example, brought the cost of the entry-level rear-wheel-drive variant down from £42,990 to £39,990.
The Model Y is expected to follow suit later this year.
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