Elon Musk’s 2024 got off to a rough start when China’s BYD overtook Tesla as the world’s leading seller of electric vehicles, according to a Tuesday Telegraph story.
According to Musk’s Tesla, the company sold a record 484,507 cars in the third quarter of 2023, up 20% from the same period the previous year.
But it wasn’t sufficient to hold the top spot.
On Monday, BYD disclosed that, during the same time frame, 526,409 cars had been delivered.
After surpassing Nissan Leaf in 2015, the American automaker remained the leading producer of electric vehicles for over eight years.
However, as China emerges as the largest market globally for battery-powered automobiles, domestic behemoths such as BYD have made significant financial investments to guarantee the affordability of their products.
The Chinese automaker, which has promised to “demolish” its rivals in the West, has also started to sell cars in the UK and other areas of Europe.
BYD, which has the support of Berkshire Hathaway, an investment entity owned by Warren Buffett, has also outsold Tesla in terms of overall sales.
