China-headquartered BYD (Build Your Dreams) has surpassed American carmaker Tesla to become the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer in terms of sales in the first half of 2022.
The Shenzhen-based company sold 6.41 lakh EVs in the first six months of 2022, which is 13.65 per cent higher compared to 5.64 lakh Tesla’s sold worldwide. The latter has blamed the supply chain and sales disruption in China for a subdued performance in the second quarter of the year.
What’s more the Warrant Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway-backed BYD also surpassed South Korea’s LG as the world’s second-largest EV battery manufacturer, right behind China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL).
It is interesting to note that one of the factors that BYD was able to have less impact on its production and sales was due to the fact, that most of its factories are based out of regions and cities where China’s lockdown measures were not strict. A situation that affected Tesla, along with other Chinese EV makers including NIO, Xpeng and Li Auto harder.
BYD has set an ambitious target of selling 1.5 million EVs this year. In India, the company has entered the electric four-wheeler market with the e6, which also recently entered the India Book of Records for longest distance travelled by an EV.
Last month, BYD overtook Volkswagen to grab the position as the world’s third-largest car maker based on the market capitalisation of $128.8 billion (Rs 10,15,845 crore) compared to the latter’s $117.5bn (Rs 926,722 crore).
