Byd overtook Tesla to become the world's largest maker of pure electric vehicles

On Jan. 3, Chinese automaker BYD surpassed Tesla in quarterly sales of pure electric vehicles for the first time. According to BYD's official data, in the fourth quarter of 2023, it sold more than 526,000 pure electric vehicles, while Tesla's sales in the same period were 485,000. This means that BYD has overtaken Tesla to become the world's largest manufacturer of pure electric vehicles.

In the fourth quarter, in the case of Tesla's sales peak, it still lost to BYD. In this regard, Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao believes that this is mainly due to BYD's wider product line in China and lower prices. This breakthrough was also regarded by overseas media represented by Reuters as "a symbolic turning point in the global electric vehicle market". They generally see BYD's rise as a reflection of China's growing influence in electric vehicles, with most Chinese automakers bringing smart electric vehicles to market faster than their Western counterparts.

However, the rapid development of China's domestic new energy vehicles cannot be separated from the cooperation between China and Tesla. Before Tesla came to China, production capacity was low, and no fuel vehicle companies were willing to cooperate with electric vehicles. At the time of the Sino-US trade war, Shanghai in China saw the value of Tesla and even released a large number of dividend policies to let Tesla take root in the Chinese market. Tesla also lived up to expectations, completed the sales of 500,000 a year, Musk from the Wall Street forced the head of the big blow, jumped to become the world's richest man.

Not only that, but more importantly, Tesla also successfully played the role of "catfish" in the Chinese market, thoroughly stirring up the entire Chinese auto industry and awakening those domestic car companies. First of all, the emergence of Tesla, the emergence of domestic car companies like mushrooming, all want to share in the cake of new energy, greatly stimulating the development of China's auto industry. After all, electric vehicles are not the same as traditional fuel vehicles, there is no "three big pieces", only a motor, a battery, a system, four wheels can be built. Second, Tesla's entry into China has also indirectly driven the upgrading of China's auto industry. Although it is easier to produce electric vehicles than traditional fuel vehicles, it also requires thousands of spare parts. After all, no matter how strong Tesla is, it can't produce all the parts by itself, so it needs Chinese manufacturers to complete it. This has pushed forward the development of Chinese component manufacturers. Third, the emergence of Tesla has led to the improvement of China's new energy industry capacity and technology, and the industry has ushered in a period of outbreak. Byd, NIO, Ideal, Xiaopeng and other domestic cars have appeared, and began to enter the global market. Therefore, Tesla's entry into China is a win-win situation.

In 2022, BYD became the first company in the world to fully suspend the production of fuel vehicles, and the Chinese market began to become popular with "domestic goods", BYD's sales began to exceed Tesla, and its market value soared to the third place in the global car companies. It is worth mentioning that BYD has become the world's leading electric car manufacturer after being forced to abandon the US market. The development of China's electric vehicles with ten years of curve overtaking proves that closure is not a way out, and openness can make progress. For the entire industry, in a mature and orderly market environment, you catch up with me in technology and cost performance, and create more high-quality products for consumers, which is a healthy and good ecology, not necessarily a zero-sum game where you lose and I win.