BYD’s year-end sales surge closes out a record 2024, but is it enough to take the EV crown?

BYD’s aggressive year-end sales push worked. China’s leading EV maker sold a record number of electric cars in 2024, but will it be enough to take the sales crown from Tesla?

Will BYD’s EV sales surge take the EV crown in 2024?

Since it stopped making vehicles fully gas-powered vehicles in 2022, BYD has taken the global auto market by storm.

With another 509,440 passenger vehicles sold in December, BYD set a new sales record in 2024, easily topping the roughly 340,000 cars sold in 2023. Like many Chinese automakers, BYD reports new energy vehicle (NEV) sales, including plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) and fully electric vehicles (EVs).

BYD’s sales crossed the 500,000 mark for the third straight month after launching an aggressive year-end sales campaign, including free insurance on select models.

With 207,734 fully electric vehicles sold in December, BYD’s EV sales reached 1,764,992 in 2024, up 41% from the previous year.

Earlier today, Electrek reported that Tesla missed Q4 2024 expectations, delivering 495,570 vehicles in the fourth quarter. In comparison, BYD sold 595,413 EVs in the fourth quarter, up 13% from Q4 2023.

Despite this, with 1,789,226 vehicles delivered in total last year, Tesla still topped BYD’s 1.76 million to maintain the global EV sales crown in 2024.

Although the race with Tesla is catching the headlines, BYD’s global sales growth is causing legacy automakers to make drastic moves. After selling more vehicles than Nissan and Honda for the first time in Q3, the Japanese automakers are now teaming up to survive the every “100 years” industry shakeup.

With its sights set on even more growth in 2025 as it starts local production in overseas markets, BYD is quickly closing in on Ford and others.

Source: BYD