China's electric vehicle maker BYD beat U.S. company Tesla in pure electric vehicle sales last year to become the world's largest EV seller.
On Jan. 2, Bloomberg, AFP, and China Business News reported that BYD said its annual sales of new energy vehicles (electric, hydrogen, and hybrid) last year reached 4,602,436 units, up 7.7% from a year earlier.
Among them, pure electric vehicle sales were 2,256,714 units, a 27.9% surge from the previous year. As a result, BYD is certain to surpass Tesla in EV sales.
Tesla sold 1.22 million units through the third quarter last year and has not yet released fourth-quarter results. However, according to an estimate disclosed at the end of last month, fourth-quarter sales were 422,850 units, down 15% from a year earlier. Reflecting this, annual sales last year are about 1.64 million units, making it likely to decline for the second straight year.
BYD already overtook Tesla in 2024 in terms of EV production, but this is the first time it has surpassed Tesla in sales. In 2024, Tesla ranked first with 1.79 million units, and BYD was second with 1.76 million.
Still, the outlook for BYD is not entirely rosy. Reduced purchase subsidies and intensifying competition in China's EV market are cited as headwinds. In Dec. last year, sales of new energy vehicles were 420,398 units, down 18.2% from a year earlier.
BYD initially set its sales target for new energy vehicles last year at 5.5 million units, but after several downward revisions, it lowered the goal to 4.6 million in Sept. last year and barely met it. The annual growth rate of 7% is also the lowest since 2020.
However, growth was notable in overseas markets. Bloomberg said BYD sold 1.05 million units outside China last year, with overseas sales rising sharply.
BYD is said to have set a goal of expanding overseas sales this year to between 1.5 million and 1.6 million units.