Chinese auto giant sold more EVs than ever in ’23
BYD’s sale of 3M battery-powered cars signals country’s rapid market growth
SEOUL, South Korea — The Chinese corporate giant BYD has announced that it sold 3 million battery-powered cars in 2023, its most ever, capping a turbulent year for China’s electric vehicle industry.
Even as sales surged, heavy competition and a sustained price war took a financial toll on many automakers.
But last year BYD sold 1.6 million fully electric vehicles and 1.4 million hybrids, which are powered by batteries and gasoline. Together that is a 62% increase over 2022. BYD is also making money, tripling its profit to $1.5 billion in the first half of last year.
All told, Chinese automakers are expected to have sold about 9.4 million electric vehicles and hybrids last year, an increase from 6.9 million in 2022, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. The group said it expected sales in 2024 to rise again, to 11.5 million.
China, already the world’s largest automobile market, is now also its fastest-growing, racing ahead in the electric vehicle transition that is upending the global industry. China rules the supply chain for battery-powered cars — from the mining and processing of cobalt and other minerals used in batteries, to the deployment of robots in factories that make cars and trucks. China’s electric vehicle companies and their suppliers employ about 1.5 million people.
A big reason for China’s early lead in electric vehicles was the government’s heavy financial support for the industry’s development. After financial incentives for consumers expired at the end of 2022, automakers slashed car prices to lure buyers. Many companies, including BYD, introduced another round of cuts last fall, intensifying the price war.
In November, BYD advertised discounts on five models of up to $2,550. Another Chinese electric vehicle company, Ji Yue, a partnership of Geely and Baidu, slashed the price of all versions of its first model by $4,200 in November.
Last year’s price cutting was started by Tesla, the American automaker that has a factory in Shanghai. In January 2023 it lowered prices in China for the second time in three months, and others followed.
As Tesla and BYD rival for the spot as the world’s most prolific maker of fully electric vehicles, both companies face increasing competition from legacy automakers that are spending billions of dollars to catch up.
During the past year, Tesla has lost market share to such rivals as General Motors, Hyundai, Ford and Volkswagen as they introduced more electric vehicles.
BYD, which faces prohibitively high tariffs in the U.S. market, sells most of its cars in China but is expanding globally, particularly in Europe.
It announced in December that it would build an assembly plant in Hungary, its first production facility for battery-powered cars in Europe. In Germany, the seat of European automaking, it introduced three models of electric cars at the start of 2023. BYD has opened dealerships in Germany, Norway and Sweden.