BYD moved further ahead of Tesla in the huge and competitive Chinese New Energy Vehicle (NEV) market in February and the first two months of 2023.
Both BYD and Tesla reported rebounds in NEV sales last month after its results in January fell because of the week-long holiday and seasonal effects of the Chinese New Year holiday, as well as the ending of most purchase subsidies.
Tesla sold 74,402 China-made electric vehicles (EV) in February, according to data published by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
That was up 31.65% from February last year.
Tesla sales for the two months totalled 140,453 units, up more than 19% from the first two months of 2022 and an annual rate of just over a million units.
BYD sold 193,655 NEVs in February, up 28% from 151,341 units in January and up 119.4% from 88,283 units in the same month last year.
That was a total of 344,996 units in January and February, a record and considerably more than 2022 (the comparison with which is clouded by the fact that BYD was also making internal combustion engine vehicles).
That’s an annual rate of close to 2 million units for BYD.
BYD stopped production and sales of vehicles powered entirely by internal combustion engines in March 2022, and all of its vehicles are now NEVs, including passenger cars as well as commercial vehicles, and they sold 191,664 units and 1,991 units in February, respectively.
BYD’s sales include plug-ins, so excluding those BYD sold more electric vehicles (EVs) that did Tesla.
BYD’s sales of EVs in February were 90,639 units, up 110% from 43,173 units in the same month last year and up 27% from 71,338 units in January. That’s a total of 161,977, or 21% more than Tesla.
BYD still sold more plug-ins than pure battery powered EVs.
Plug-in hybrid vehicles sales totalled 101,025 units, up 128% from 44,300 units in the same month last year and 28.1% from January. That was down 6.3% from a year earlier and down 48.3% from December’s record when most purchase subsidies expired. These figures and those from smaller EV makers suggest China’s February sales figure will rise sharply from January’s 332,000.
And it is good news for battery makers and lithium, nickel and other green metals producers.
