Taking advantage of both the surge in its domestic market and the difficulties of its rival, the Chinese BYD saw its car sales increase by more than 300%. But does it exceed Tesla for all that? Not really.
The first sales or production figures for the first quarter are starting to fall. And these days, it is no longer necessarily the place of world number one that is monitored, but that of world number one in electricity. A place that belongs to Tesla since the success of the Model 3 then from ModelY.
But the American experienced some setbacks in production in the first half of 2022. After being relatively spared in 2021, it too is affected by the component crisis and its Shanghai plant was quite hard hit by the city’s confinement at the end of spring. Its production over the half-year amounted to 564,000 units, with a drop between the 1st and 2nd quarters for a manufacturer accustomed for some time to continuous growth.
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BYD boosted by the Chinese market
Opposite is the Chinese manufacturer BYD. Just three years ago, he was Tom Thumb in the global or Chinese automotive industry. In 2019 or 2020, its annual sales do not exceed half a million units. With still a majority of gasoline models. Electric and plug-in hybrids only represent a third of its sales…
Today, Build Your Dreams is literally boosted by the rise in electric car sales in China. They now represent nearly 20% of the market and BYD is reaping the rewards of its long-standing investments. He has been defending the idea of the electric car for more than 15 years.
In the first half of the year, BYD registered 647,914 electrified cars in China. An increase of 312% compared to 2021 and therefore nearly 100,000 units more than Tesla. BYD is advantaged on many fronts: its range is wider with cheaper models, it does not have a factory in Shanghai and it has been less impacted by the confinements, it produces a large part of its components itself , including electrical or electronic, and is less exposed to the crisis of the latter.
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Lots of plug-in hybrids at BYD
But, because there is a but, this total also includes the plug-in hybrid vehicles. And if on the Chinese market plug-in hybrids represent only 5% of NEV sales (in the first trimester, the detailed figures for the second quarter will be available later), the situation is different at BYD, which is the champion of this technology. Thus, despite the launch of major electric models such as the Yuan More or Dolphin (the Seal not yet delivered), its new DM-i rechargeable hybrid technology has also met with great success.
Plug-in hybrids thus represent nearly 50% of BYD’s sales: 317,684 against 327,037 for electrics (the difference with the total comes from a handful of utilities).
So Tesla remains number 1… For now.