China’s electric vehicle giant BYD has posted a significant increase in quarterly revenue, surpassing Tesla’s for the first time. The company reported over 200 billion yuan ($28.2 billion, £21.8 billion) in revenue from July to September, marking a 24% rise from the same period last year, and exceeding Tesla’s $25.2 billion revenue for the quarter.
Net profit climbed to 11.6 billion yuan ($1.63 billion) in the July-September quarter, as noted in a stock exchange filing. Net profit for the first nine months was up 18.1% to 25.2 billion yuan ($3.54 billion).
BYD also achieved a monthly sales record in September, the final month of the quarter, signaling continued momentum for China’s top carmaker. BYD vehicles made up over one-third of all EV and plug-in hybrid sales in China this year. However, Tesla still led in global EV sales from July to September.
BYD’s impressive growth has been fueled by aggressive discounts on its top models and robust sales in plug-in hybrids, which rose by 75.6% year-over-year to 685,830 units in Q3.
In contrast, sales growth for BYD’s pure EVs slowed to 2.7%, with 443,426 units sold in the quarter, and the company has been losing market share in the EV segment to other domestic rivals, according to Reuters.
Currently, BYD sells over 90% of its vehicles in China, but they have set an ambitious annual sales target and aims to double exports to 450,000 vehicles this year, a slight decrease from the 500,000 target set in March, as per a Morgan Stanley report from September.
Despite challenges, BYD continues its expansion into European markets, facing newly implemented EU tariffs of up to 45.3% on Chinese EV imports. In North America, Chinese EV manufacturers already face a 100% import tax. These tariffs address alleged unfair state subsidies in China’s auto industry. Still, BYD’s overseas sales reached 94,477 units in the third quarter, up 32.6% from the previous year.
