For the first time, BYD, the electric vehicle (EV) maker from China, reported its 3Q revenue surpassing its U.S. rival Tesla.
On Wednesday, BYD reported its revenue for 3Q24 at CNY 201.12 billion ($28.24 billion), representing a 24% growth from the previous year, which surpassed Tesla’s revenue in the same quarter of $25.18 billion.
Although the EV market in China saw a slump, BYD came out with a solid performance, as the EV giant sold a significant number of vehicles in August. Half of BYD sales are actually hybrid vehicles, as opposed to Tesla where all of their sales are EVs.
But in net profit, it is another story.
In 3Q24, Tesla reported its net profit of $2.18 billion, a 16.2% boost from last year, while its rival BYD saw an 11.5% gain in profit to CNY 11.6 billion ($1.63 billion).
Meanwhile, Tesla still beat BYD on year-to-date sales, squeezing past BYD’s approximately $70.53 billion in total revenue with $71.98 billion.
BYD is among the top EV manufacturers from China, the world’s biggest consumer of automobiles, where BYD must stand against not only its domestic rival but also rivals from overseas for EV supremacy.
On the home front, BYD’s biggest competitor is Tesla, as Tesla’s Model Y remains China’s best-selling EV, with BYD’s seagull following closely behind.
The EV battlefield will only get more competitive as European Union tariffs will be in effect this week, disregarding China’s protest.
The European Union voted to increase tariffs on Chinese EVs on Wednesday, which will result in import duties as high as 45.3%.
The increasing tariff varies from 7.8% for Tesla to 35.3% for SAIC Motors, which would be charged on top of the already existing 10% duty on all imported EVs.
Even though tariffs on both BYD and Tesla vehicles were reduced from the original proposal, both manufacturers have taken the initiative to expand their production in Europe to work around the taxation.
Earlier this month, Tesla received a clearance to double its production capacity in its factory in Berlin. Last year BYD announced that it would expand into Hungary, and in July, the company said it would invest $1 billion into its Turkey plant, a country that has a customs union with the EU.
