Last quarter's sales crown, BYD replaced Tesla!

[Global Times reporter Ni Hao, Global Times special correspondent in the United States and South Korea, Liu Yiran, Ding Ling] "BYD surpassed Tesla and became the world's largest electric vehicle company. CNN reported on the 2nd. In the fourth quarter of 2023, BYD's pure electric vehicle sales reached 526,409 units, compared to 484,507 units sold by its U.S. competitor in the fourth quarter. The American website "Business Insider" lamented that "Tesla has lost its electric car crown." The US media believes that the rapidly developing field of new energy vehicles is undergoing earth-shaking changes, with BYD selling more than 3 million new energy vehicles in 2023, while Tesla's annual sales are about 1.81 million. BYD's milestone growth marks China's growing influence in the highly competitive electric vehicle market. While China's new energy vehicles are making great progress, they are also facing suppression from Europe and the United States. However, experts interviewed by the Global Times believe that the overall advantages of China's new energy industry chain will help Chinese automakers maintain long-term market advantages.

"A landmark event"

According to the production and sales report released by BYD on the 1st, its sales of new energy vehicles in December 2023 will be 341,000 units, and the cumulative sales volume in 2023 will reach 3,024,400 units, a year-on-year increase of 62.3%, of which the sales of pure electric vehicles will reach 1,574,800 units. According to a report on the CNBC website of the United States on the 2nd, Tesla will deliver a total of 1,808,581 pure electric vehicles in 2023. Although Tesla still leads in pure electric vehicles for the whole year, the gap has narrowed significantly compared to the previous year.

Zhang Xiang, director of the Vodaf Digital Vehicle International Cooperation Research Center, said in an interview with the Global Times that BYD's overtaking of Tesla is a landmark event in the global competition between China's new energy vehicles and multinational car companies. He believes that BYD has rich products, price advantages, and more advantages than Tesla in upstream and downstream vertical integration, which is the main reason for its transcendence.

On December 6, 2023, a train loaded with new energy vehicles left Ganzhou International Port. (Visual China)

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the Chinese company has been growing faster than Tesla for some time. In addition to newer products and lower prices, BYD's advantage lies in the larger size of China's electric vehicle market. The Financial Times reported on the 2nd that BYD is now known as an industry leader, not only maintaining its advantages in production costs, but also having strong vertical integration capabilities, including one of the world's largest electric vehicle battery manufacturing companies.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Tesla is facing a "period of low growth", and Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Rosner predicts that the electric car maker's 2024 performance will be subdued due to limited sales growth.

China's global market share of new energy vehicles exceeds 60%.

The U.S. "Investor Business Daily" reported on the 1st that in addition to BYD, China's new car-making forces - Li Auto, Xiaopeng Motors, and Weilai Automobile have also released record sales data.

Li Auto's electric vehicle sales in December 2023 hit a record high of 50,353 units, a year-on-year increase of 137%, and annual sales increased by 182.2% to 376,030 units. Xpeng Motors' sales in December last year also hit a record high of 20,115 units, breaking the 20,000 mark for three consecutive months. NIO sold 18,012 units in the same month and 50,045 units in the fourth quarter of last year, exceeding its target target.

In 2023, the overall strong performance of China's new energy vehicles has further increased its share of the global market. According to the data of the China Passenger Association, from January to November last year, China exported a total of about 1.6 million new energy vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 87%, accounting for 62.6% of the global market share, of which China's share in November last year was as high as 68%. Data from the China Passenger Car Association also shows that in 2023, Chinese brands will occupy six of the top 10 auto brands in the world in terms of market share, namely BYD, SAIC, Geely Automobile, Changan Automobile, GAC Group and Li Auto.

According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, China's auto exports are expected to surpass Japan's in 2023 and become the world's largest auto exporter for the first time. Kyodo News reported that this is the first time since 2016 that Japan has been squeezed out of the top spot. The reason for this is that Chinese manufacturers have been continuously improving their technological capabilities under the incentives of their own policies, and have achieved an increase in exports of low-cost and high-quality pure electric vehicles. The Wall Street Journal reported that in the past, Chinese automakers struggled to compete with Western manufacturers in terms of engines and powertrains, but now Western automakers are learning from China Xi the successful experience of electric vehicles, and this shift will not only affect the Chinese auto market, but also on the home turf of foreign manufacturers.

"The only country that can withstand so much pressure"

South Korea's SBS TV reported on the 2nd that despite the various sanctions imposed by the US government on China, Chinese companies still achieved rapid growth. Under strong U.S. sanctions, China may be the only country that can withstand such pressure.

A few days ago, the United States intends to exclude more and more multinational auto brands from the tax credit policy that excludes China's new energy battery industry chain. On the 1st, the new U.S. battery procurement regulations officially came into effect. Reuters said that as a result, the number of electric vehicle models eligible for the U.S. electric vehicle tax credit decreased from 43 to 19. Some Tesla Model 3, Chevrolet Trailblazer, and Nissan Leaf have all lost their eligibility for a tax credit of up to $7,500.

The European Union has also been tightening restrictions on new energy vehicles from China. In July last year, the European Union passed a new battery bill, and in October, it launched a countervailing investigation into China's pure electric vehicles, in an attempt to raise the threshold for Chinese electric vehicles to enter the EU in terms of carbon emissions and tariffs.

Chen Sijie, a researcher at Zhongtai Futures Research Institute, believes that after a long period of accumulation, the domestic new energy vehicle industry has developed rapidly, and the entire industrial chain from raw lithium carbonate to lithium batteries and new energy vehicles is in a leading position in the world. In the long run, the entire new energy vehicle industry from upstream lithium salts, midstream battery cells, and then downstream vehicle ends, the pace of overseas factory construction is accelerating, so the long-term impact may be relatively limited. Zhang Xiang believes that the global new energy transformation brings a relatively large market space, and Chinese car companies have other countries to explore in addition to the European and American markets.