BYD racing away with China’s EV market

BYD overtook Tesla to become the world’s largest supplier of battery-powered electric vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2023, by a substantial margin of 526,000 to 484,000 units sold. But in China, the race for market dominance isn’t nearly as close.

Indeed, Volkswagen, BMW, Toyota, Honda, Nissan and several Chinese companies outpace Tesla in the overall Chinese auto market.

American and European politicians who are fond of ranting about China’s closed markets should take note that Chinese consumers appreciate German and Japanese quality like almost everybody else. They also admire Tesla but are not fanatic about it.

In January 2024, BYD’s share of the Chinese market for battery electric vehicles was 26.2%, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association cited by CarNewsChina. Tesla’s share was 10.6%.

Volkswagen ranked sixth with 4.2%. China’s Wuling, Aion and Changan outranked Volkswagen, while Zeekr, Geely, Nio and Leap rounded out the top ten.

In the Chinese auto market as a whole, Volkswagen was the best-selling brand with a market share of 10.3%. BYD ranked second at 9.4% and Toyota third at 7.0%. Changan slightly outsold Honda, which had 6.4% of the market.

BMW ranked eighth at 3.4% and Nissan tenth at 2.9%. Geely, Wuling and Chery completed the top ten. Tesla’s share was only 2.0%.

Five of the ten best-selling car models in January were foreign, including the Tesla Model Y, which ranked sixth. The Changan CS75 Plus was the most popular, followed by the Volkswagen Lavida, BYD Song Plus, Nissan Sylphy and Aito Wenjie M7.

The BYD Qin Plus and Seagull were also in the Top Ten, as were the Volkswagen Sagitar and Honda CR-V. The list was compiled by CarNewsChina, which cited Chinese auto websites Dongchedi