A lackluster third quarter from Tesla has the Chinese automaker BYD eyeing the American automaker’s EV crown as the firm is just over 3,000 units away from becoming the largest EV automaker in the world.
Bloomberg crunched the numbers, finding a rise in exports and a decline in production from Tesla leading to just a 3,456 gap in sales between the two automakers:
China’s best-selling car brand came within a whisker of toppling Tesla last quarter after factory downtime led to the US automaker’s first delivery decline in more than a year.
BYD sold 431,603 fully-electric vehicles in the three months ended Sept. 30, up 23% from the second quarter. Tesla shipped 435,059 cars globally in the quarter — with the 3,456 gap between the two the narrowest yet.
“BYD will sell more fully electric passenger vehicles than Tesla in the fourth quarter,” said Taylor Ogan, chief executive officer of Shenzhen-based hedge fund Snow Bull Capital, which owns shares in both automakers.
BYD is already easily China’ best-selling car brand, with 822,094 sold this quarter, according to Bloomberg. Exports also jumped for BYD from just five percent of sales to nine in just one quarter.
This is just one example of BYD being hungry for a bite of Tesla’s lunch. Rather than just repeatedly promising affordable EVs, BYD actually builds and sells them using its own chips and batteries. The company also released an SUV so watertight it actually can be used as a boat, rather than Musk’s long promised temporarily buoyant Cybertruck, which has once again missed its release date.