Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker BYD scored a huge win on Wednesday against its biggest rival Tesla, when it reported higher quarterly revenue than the Elon Musk-owned company.
Revenue for BYD was up 24 per cent year-on-year to 201.1 billion yuan ($28.2 billion) for the three months ending September 30. Tesla’s sales for the same period was $25.2 billion, even though it still sold more units than BYD.
Importantly, BYD notched a monthly sales record in September 2024. The performance is notable because BYD continues to face backlash in Western countries over the support it receives from the Chinese government.
European Union has added new tariffs of up to 45.3 per cent on imports of Chinese-made EVs, alleging unfair state subsidy, across the bloc. BYD and others are already facing a 100 per cent tax in the United States and Canada.
China’s electric vehicle maker sold a total of 1.12 million electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles during the quarter, which was a record for the company and led to an 11.5 per cent increase in net income to an all-time high of 11.6 billion yuan ($1.62 billion). Tesla still managed to have higher profits of $2.2 billion.
For the first nine months, the company’s net profit was up 18.1 per cent to 25.2 billion yuan ($3.54 billion).
The Chinese company is on track to meet its revised annual sales target of 4 million vehicles, having sold around 2.74 million vehicles through September. China continues to be the world’s biggest car market, and the last three months of any year are usually considered peak purchasing season.
The company sells more than 90 per cent of its cars in China, and has goals of doubling its exports to 450,000 vehicles this year. BYD sold 94,477 cars overseas in the third quarter, which is up 32.6 per cent from the year before.
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