The American Tesla is gradually losing the world leadership in the sale of electric cars. The Chinese car manufacturer BYD came close to it in the third quarter and probably overtook it in the fourth quarter just ending, the agency pointed out Bloomberg.
While still in the first quarter of this year, Tesla held the lead in sales by almost 160 thousand cars, between July and September it shrunk to only a marginal 3.5 thousand. BYD manages to grow mainly thanks to the production of cheaper battery cars. It currently offers six models, the price of which starts well below what Tesla charges for its cheapest Model 3 in China – i.e. more than 260,000 yuan (812,000 crowns). For example, the Song and Qin models, which BYD offers from 100 and 130 thousand yuan, are popular. By October, 483,000 and 380,000 respectively were sold, while “only” 347,000 Model Ys were sold.
“It’s no longer about the size or tradition of car companies, but about the speed with which they can innovate and iterate. BYD started preparing a long time ago to be able to do this faster than anyone thought possible,” says Bridget McCarthy of Snow Bull Capital, which invests in both BYD and Tesla.
A car developed by Europeans
BYD electric cars are not “just” cheap, but in the eyes of many experts and obviously also customers, they are also good-looking. And it’s not a coincidence. Like other Chinese manufacturers, BYD also invested in know-how and brought Wolfgang Egger, who previously held this position at Audi or Alfa Romeo, to the post of chief designer. Other leading experts were attracted by a Chinese company from Ferrari or Mercedes.
As much as their founding fathers were and are the key driving force for BYD and Tesla, their personal story and approach could hardly be more different. Elon Musk needs no introduction. His Chinese counterpart, also billionaire Wang Chuanfu, on the other hand, avoids the limelight and is not the most active on social networks. His recent statement that the time is coming when Chinese brands will destroy the old legends of the automotive world resonated all the more. His remarks came just weeks before the European Union announced it would investigate Chinese state subsidies to carmakers and consider defense measures.
Wang, now 57, was born the second youngest of eight children in the village of Wuwei in eastern China. He founded BYD in 1995 in Shenzhen, also thanks to a loan from a friend who entrusted him with several million crowns at the time. Today, Wang controls a fortune of almost fifteen billion dollars. By the way, BYD initially focused on batteries and became the first ever Chinese supplier to supply Motorola and Nokia.
Western investors also believe in BYD
Wang built a giant company whose growth benefited even Western investors – for example, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, into which masses of small investors from all over the world put money. They have long referred to Wang as a “genius” or the “guy who does it better than Elon himself.”
The success of Chinese automakers has made China the world’s leading car exporter. At the same time, in 2019, the duo Japan-Germany dominated supremely, the former with exports exceeding four million cars, the latter 3.5 million. This year, China already holds the lead with 3.3 million, followed by Japan with 3.2 million. Germany remains third with a deficit of more than seven hundred thousand cars to China. About one in three cars exported from China is electric, and this share is expected to grow further.
India, Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Germany, Sweden and Brazil are among the largest non-Chinese markets to which BYD exports its cars. Also thanks to growing exports, this year BYD will rank among the ten largest car companies in the world with 3.13 million sales. According to estimates, it will rank 9th behind Ford with four million.
2023-12-27 14:00:00
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