BYD didn’t just enjoy a fruitful year, expanding into a multitude of new markets throughout 2023, but it also reported a significant increase in sales across China, toppling the Volkswagen Group as the nation’s best-selling brand.
Data from the China Automotive Technology and Research Center reveals that 2.4 million BYD vehicles were registered across the country last year. This gave the company an 11% share of the new car market, a 3.2% increase from 2022 when it was neck-and-neck with Toyota as China’s second best-selling carmaker after the VW Group.
Read: BYD Delivers Over 3 Million Electrified Vehicles In 2023, Beats Tesla In Q4 EV Sales
The company’s rapid rise in popularity has seen its sales surge over the past few years, Bloomberg notes. As recently as 2020 it was trailing Changan, Honda, Toyota, and the VW Group, and while the sales of those brands have largely stagnated or fallen, BYD has experienced a huge increase in demand, thanks primarily to the introduction of several compelling plug-in hybrid and battery-electric vehicles.
BYD sold a total of 3,024,417 vehicles during the 2023 calendar year. This includes 1.57 million battery-electric vehicles while the remaining 1.4 million were plug-in hybrids. BYD fell just short of topping Tesla’s 1.8 million EVs sold throughout the year, it did manage to sell more EVs in the fourth quarter than its American rival. The firm’s jump in sales also allowed it to crack into the list of the world’s 10 largest car manufacturers.
BYD’s array of brands could see their sales continue to grow throughout 2024, as they are expected to launch compelling new models like the YangWang U8 and Fang Cheng Bao 5, both of which may soon be sold in Europe. BYD also recently took delivery of its very own cargo ship that can transport 7,000 vehicles at a time.
