BYD’s European Sales Soar 235%

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Dec 24, 9:15AM EST

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BYD sales in Europe soared in November, while those at Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) were in retreat.
BYD is expanding beyond Europe and China, but not to the United States due to high tariffs on Chinese EVs.

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BYD’s European Sales Soar 235% — © Robert Way / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

BYD’s registrations in the European Union were up 235.2% in November to 16,158, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA). Meanwhile, registrations for Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) fell 34.2% to 12,130. For the first 11 months of the year, BYD registrations rose 240% to 110,715, while those at Tesla fell 38.8% to 110,715.

BYD sells more electric vehicles than Tesla does worldwide. It is also the sales leader in its home market of China, which is the world’s largest EV market.

One way BYD is pushing into Europe is by building assembly plants there. It is considering a factory in Spain, which would be its third in the region. It has plants operating in Hungary and Turkey. These factories might be a way to avoid tariffs on Chinese EVs in the region.

BYD’s position in China bolsters its finances. Its market share is about 25%, but there are dozens of competitors, including Tesla. Because the market has so many manufacturers, some are likely to go out of business.

BYD has started to export its vehicles to markets outside China and Europe. One of its major targets is South America, and it has a factory in Brazil.

For now, BYD will sell no vehicles in the United States because of a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs. GM and Ford understand that if these tariffs disappear, they will be in trouble. Ford CEO Jim Farley said as much earlier this year.

BYD sales in Europe show how quickly it can enter a market and expand its footprint.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.