Despite Tesla going through a rough couple of months in the stock market, it still remains to be the most valuable automaker in the world with a market capitalization of $742.46 billion. Toyota is a distant second with a valuation of $228.44 billion which is only 30% of Tesla’s value. Surprisingly, the third spot is currently taken by BYD, a Chinese automaker which is also in the energy business like Tesla and backed by Billionaire Warren Buffet.
BYD dethroned Volkswagen by having a market cap of $131.58 billion versus $115.06 billion of the German automaker who holds the number 4 spot. Mercedes-Benz, BMW Group, General Motors, Ford, Stellantis, and Honda round up the remaining positions for the top 10 listing.
Back in April, BYD stopped selling fuel-powered vehicles, the company now focuses only on pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. This move made BYD the first traditional automobile manufacturer in the world to abandon fuel – powered cars, the rest in the top 10 apart from Tesla are still in the transitioning phase with many of them planning to make the complete jump around 2030.
As far as their sales are concerned, BYD had sold 504,000 of its new energy passenger models between January and May, with 114,000 of those sales coming in May alone. Volkswagen has sold more cars in that period, however, BYD sales from electric cars surpass the German’s ID series of battery powered vehicles.
Interestingly, BYD is the only Chinese automaker with a spot in the top ten largest automakers in the world by market value. The other Chinese auto company comes in at number 11, Great Wall Motors.
Earlier this week, BYD Vice President Lian Yubo said during an interview with Chinese state media anchor Kate Kui that the company was poised to supply Tesla with batteries “very soon.” This could also have contributed to their rise in value. BYD is the number 2 supplier of batteries in China after CATL which also supplies Tesla.