The Chinese automaker BYD sold 526,409 fully electric vehicles in the fourth quarter, meaning Tesla will need a record showing to maintain its global market leadership when it releases sales figures later on Tuesday.
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 a stock exchange filing on Monday. For all of 2023, BYD sold 3.01 million units, an increase of 62% from the year before.
The Shenzhen-based automaker said it sold 1.6 million battery EVs as well as more than 1.4 million plug-in hybrid EVs.
Analysts tracking Tesla, founded by billionaire Elon Musk, estimate it sold around 483,200 units in December, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
A revamped Model 3 and the stainless steel-clad Cybertruck, for which deliveries began at the end of November, may provide a late boost to Tesla, which had set a full-year sales target of 1.8 million units.
The US automaker has also been gradually adjusting prices in the US and China, where it initiated a price war in late 2022 that extended into 2023.
BYD’s full-year volumes were almost as much as its EV and hybrid sales over the previous five years combined. The company, which had set a target of 3 million units, vaulted into the top 10 ranking of global car sales for the first time.
However, BYD shares fell almost 24% in 2023, with an accelerated decline since mid-November as competitive pressures, price cuts and concerns that it could meet sales targets pummeled the company’s valuation. Despite starting a price war in China, Tesla shares rose 130% last year.
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 announcement came despite an ongoing EU anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese EVs.
China’s new-energy vehicle sales in 2023 were estimated to have risen 36.5% year-on-year to about 7.75 million units, the Passenger Car Association said in preliminary estimates released in December.
BYD is the top selling EV brand in Thailand, where EV sales soared last year thanks to generous government subsidies to encourage buyers to switch to greener vehicles.
The subsidies have been reduced this year but improved tax breaks for EV makers are expected to cut their production costs, reducing the need for incentives for consumers.