Tesla EV sales behind China’s BYD for the first time

The Chinese automaker accelerated sales in the final quarter of last year, pipping the Elon Musk-driven US group to the post as the world’s largest electric vehicles seller for that period.

Chinese automaker BYD for the first time topped Tesla as the world’s largest seller of electric vehicles on a quarterly basis, a sign of China’s emerging strength in the global market for battery-powered cars.

BYD reported selling more than 526,000 fully electric vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2023, compared with Tesla’s sales of nearly 485,000 for the same period.

Tesla remained ahead of BYD for the full year though.

Elon Musk’s electric-car maker said overnight it delivered about 1.8 million EVs worldwide in 2023, meeting its full-year guidance and slightly beating Wall Street’s expectations.

The figure was 38 per cent higher than the previous year’s, showing that Tesla’s growth rate slowed slightly as the company has entered an increasingly competitive chapter defined by more gradual expansion and slimmer profit margins.

By comparison, the Warren Buffett-backed BYD sold nearly 1.6 million battery-powered vehicles last year, up more than 70 per cent over 2022. Overall sales of more than 3 million new-energy vehicles in 2023 were up 62 per cent from a year earlier. Though nearly 90 per cent of BYD’s sales still came from China in December, its exports have been growing fast - overseas sales in the second half of 2023 more than tripled from a year earlier.

Tesla’s results come as concerns are growing on Wall Street about the level of demand for the company’s cars – and electric vehicles more broadly – in the year ahead.

The electric-car market has shown signs of cooling after a period of heady growth that has driven robust profit margins for Tesla.

In the US, some automakers are finding fewer people are ready to go electric than they expected, as anxieties about finding enough places to publicly charge persist and higher interest rates make cars more difficult to afford.

Rival electric-vehicle maker Rivian Automotive also delivered 50,122 EVs last year, missing Wall Street’s expectations. The company’s vehicle sales for the fourth quarter fell 10 per cent over the third quarter, despite an increase in factory output.

Other major car companies are expected to report year-end sales figures for the US this week.

BYD’s electric vehicles waiting to be loaded at the port in Suzhou in September. Picture: AFP

Abroad, competition continues to intensify in the EV space.

Tesla’s share of China’s electric-vehicle market has held relatively steady nevertheless, ticking up to nearly 12 per cent in the first 11 months of 2023, from almost 11 per cent in the same period the year prior. Full-year sales figures for the country have yet to be reported.

Tesla’s shares kicked off 2024 in the red amid widespread declines on the tech-focused Nasdaq index.

Tesla shares roughly doubled in value in 2023 as the company slashed prices to juice demand and Wall Street regained confidence in the company’s ability to execute on its longer-term plans.

Tesla aims to develop autonomous cars and halve production costs for its next generation of vehicles, which is widely expected to include a more affordable car.

In the near term, many investors are bracing for a tougher year ahead. Tesla delivered its first Cybertruck pick-up trucks to customers late last year, a milestone for a company that hadn’t rolled out a new passenger-vehicle model in three years.

However, chief executive Elon Musk has warned the process of ramping up factory production of the futuristic truck is likely to be arduous and expensive.

The company didn’t disclose how many Cybertrucks it sold in 2023.

Meanwhile, Tesla’s steep price cuts over the past year have squeezed the company’s once industry-leading operating margin, which as of the third quarter had fallen more in line with other major automakers.

Sydney’s ‘Tesla Tom’ posted a picture of a Tesla Supercharger in Bathurst powering up a BYD Atto 3 electric car on his channel Ludicrous Feed last year. Tesla has opened up several of its locations in Australia to charge all EV brands. Picture: YouTube

Some on Wall Street question how much more room Tesla has to grow without another less expensive car in its line-up. Its Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover made up 96 per cent of Tesla’s global deliveries last year.

The least expensive Model 3 starts at about $US39,000 in the US. Starting in January, that car and the mid-tier variant of the Model 3 no longer qualify for a $US7500 federal tax credit, as restrictions tighten on EVs with battery components made in China.

“In the very near term, we think worries over 2024 growth could dampen investor sentiment somewhat, especially considering the meaningful downside risk to next year’s earnings,” Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Rosner wrote in a note to investors about Tesla before the new year.

Wall Street expects the company to sell around 2.1 million vehicles globally in 2024, according to FactSet.

In 2023, Tesla grew at a faster pace than the global EV market, which expanded an estimated 33 per cent, according to GlobalData.

Tesla is scheduled to report year-end financial results on January 24 with Wall Street expecting annual profit to slide roughly 26 per cent to $US9.3bn, according to FactSet. Analysts forecast revenue will rise around 20 per cent to $US97bn.

– The Wall Street Journal