Warren Buffet-backed BYD becomes world's largest EV and PHEV maker, outsells Tesla

China's BYD has become the largest producer of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles globally. BYD outperformed Elon Musk led Tesla as the world's largest clean car maker, only that Tesla doesn't make any PHEVs and only sell electric vehicles. As for the electric vehicles also, BYD is fast catching Tesla as the largest EV maker in the world and is already the biggest EV maker in China. In 2022, BYD sold over 911,000 EVs globally, and more than 946,000 PHEVs, with a combined figure greater than 1.86 million. Tesla, on the other hand, sold over 1.3 million fully-electric cars globally.

BYD is slowly garnering a large market share in many large auto markets, including India, where they recently launched their BYD Atto.3 as the first electric SUV. Earlier, BYD introduced BYD e.6 MPV in the domestic market. At the upcoming Auto Expo 2023, BYD will also showcase the BYD Seal electric sedan.

Tesla is also facing a lot of trouble in China, which is its second largest car market after the United States. China accounts for roughly 40% of Tesla’s sales. Concern about the carmaker’s performance there has been a significant factor in the precipitous decline of Tesla’s share price last year. The company’s stock closed down about 3% Thursday.

Protesters took to a Tesla store in China's Chengdu after the U.S. automaker cut prices for the second time in less than three months on January 6. Video showed crowds chanting outside the shop. Some Tesla owners in China who took delivery in recent months expressed anger on social media that they did not qualify for the reduced prices.

Tesla also cut prices on its best-selling Model Y and Model 3 electric vehicles in Japan, South Korea and Australia in what a person with direct knowledge of the plan said was part of an effort to help stoke demand for output from its Shanghai factory, its single largest production hub.

The shift is the first major move by Tesla since appointing its lead executive for China and Asia, Tom Zhu, to oversee global output and deliveries that have been at the heart of the company's recent challenges after falling short of its 2022 delivery target.

With Reuters inputs