Tesla Inc. sold a record number of vehicles last quarter, but BYD Co. still got the better of the Elon Musk-led company yet again.
China’s top carmaker has now delivered more fully electric vehicles worldwide than its US counterpart in four consecutive quarters. BYD managed to outsell Tesla on a quarterly basis even despite registering its first total sales decline in 18 months in September.
While BYD is now poised to deliver more battery-electric cars than Tesla during a calendar year for the first time — having sold almost 390,000 more EVs through the first nine months — there are clouds on the horizon for both companies.
BYD is losing momentum in its home market, where policymakers are increasingly concerned about destructive competition. Tesla will have trouble replicating last quarter’s showing now that the US has phased out federal tax credits supporting EV purchases.
China’s government has sought to temper cutthroat competitive practices in the world’s biggest car market, where manufacturers have waged a relentless price war since early 2023. BYD has been at the fore of the discounting trend and in late August reported a surprise 30% drop in quarterly profit.
BYD has since lowered its sales ambition for this year to 4.6 million fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, almost 1 million units lower than its earlier target.
Tesla meanwhile faces the prospect of a second consecutive decline in annual sales. Even after delivering 497,099 vehicles in the third quarter, sales were down almost 6% through the first nine months of the year. EVs are now widely expected to lose luster in the US — the company’s biggest market — due to an up to $7,500 federal tax credit expiring at the end of September.
Musk has warned Tesla “could have a rough few quarters” after losing the US incentives. While the chief executive officer has put more emphasis on developing driverless cars and humanoid robots, he’s also acknowledged that autonomy has yet to “move the financial needle” and been vague about Tesla’s progress in commercializing its Optimus robot.
Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg are projecting BYD will outsell Tesla for the year by a wide margin. BYD is expected to deliver around 2.17 million battery-electric vehicles, while the average estimate for Tesla is for 1.61 million cars.
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