Elon Musk’s Tesla Loses Its Spot As World’s Top Electric Car Seller

Tesla is no longer the world’s top seller of electric cars company after China’s BYD topped the list of global sales.

The Schengen-based automaker, revealed that it sold 641,350 “new energy vehicles” — or full-battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids — in the first six months of 2022. According to a company filing, The sales figure has increased by about 314% as compared to the same period a year ago.

According to the release, BYD sold more than 134,000 vehicles in June alone.

In the same period, Tesla sold 564,000 electric cars after struggling with supply chain and production issues in China related to COVID restrictions.

BYD sales represent a 300 percent increase from the first six months of 2021, coinciding with China’s own rise as a major electric vehicle maker.

The Asian country exported more than half a million EVs in 2021 – double that of 2020. This figure increasingly belongs to Chinese brands or Chinese-owned European brands such as Volvo and MG Motor.

BYD’s rise has seen its share price rise by more than 24 percent since the start of the year, and more than 500 percent in the past five years.

Company filings published this week also revealed that production of fossil fuel-powered vehicles fell to zero in June 2022, down from more than 17,000 in the same month last year.

The firm overtook LG of South Korea to become the world’s second largest producer of EV batteries behind only Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL).

Tesla boss Elon Musk previously dismissed BYD’s electric vehicle ambitions, laughs in an interview with Bloomberg in 2011 and saying that he didn’t see him as a competitor.

“Have you seen his car?” he said. “I don’t think they have a great product. I don’t think it’s particularly attractive, the technology isn’t very strong… I think their focus is on making sure they don’t die in China.

The Financial Times reported that both BYD’s full battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids are considered “zero emissions” cars under China’s industry standards. Hybrids use electric batteries as well as complementary engines and conventional fuel sources.