BYD, which is a Chinese auto giant backed by Warren Buffett’s Hathaway, has dethroned Elon Musk’s Tesla as the World’s largest electric vehicle maker by revenue indicating an increase in the dominance of China in the sector.
BYD which is Shenzhen based sold 641,000 automobiles in the first six months of the year, an increase of more than 300 per cent over last year. Where Tesla sold 564,000 vehicles has blamed a tough second quarter on the supply chain has also caused disruptions in the distribution in China after the operations were impacted by COVID. BYD’s rise highlights China’s increase in the position of renewable energy which has economies of scale and also cost advantages across much of the supply chain electric vehicles batteries and wind and solar energy.
Jeff Chung, who is the auto analyst at Citi, of BYD’s sales growth, even said that their performance looks impressive. BYD, which is also partly owned by Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, has also beaten South Korea’s LG which is the world’s largest EV battery maker behind China. According to Seoul-based SNE Research, BYD has even beaten LG Energy in monthly market share since April. Tesla, along with another group of Chinese electric vehicle makers have been hit harder by the prolonged lockdown than BYD which has benefitted because most of its factories are not located in the region under restrictions.
