After years on top of the global electric vehicle market, Tesla has lost the title of world’s largest EV producer to Chinese powerhouse BYD. In 2024, Tesla made 1,774,442 electric vehicles, 4,500 shy of BYD’s 1,777,965. After first surpassing Tesla’s quarterly vehicle production in Q4 2023, BYD fell back behind its U.S. competitor in subsequent quarters. In Q4 2024, however, China’s number 1 car brand outproduced Tesla by almost 150,000 vehicles, making it the world’s new leading EV manufacturer.
While few people outside of China had heard of BYD just a couple of years ago, the Shenzhen-based electronics and manufacturing giant rose to international fame in recent years, as its largest business unit/subsidiary BYD Auto became one of the largest makers of electric cars in the world and expanded beyond its home market.
BYD successfully pivoted from international combustion vehicles to what’s known as “new energy vehicles” in China, i.e. battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. The company did so at breakneck speed, ramping up production of its electric passenger vehicles at a pace matched only by what is now its largest competitor at the global scale: Tesla.
