Chinese Electric Commercial Vehicles Overtaking Tesla

BYD, a Chinese company dealing in EVs, seems to be crawling up to Tesla in terms of sales of electric commercial vehicles. In fact, it had already greatly challenged Tesla EV sales last year. This goes for both hybrid and fully electric cars.

The company is now trying to further boost production and the number of electric vehicles for sale to outcompete its rival. The numbers are currently incredibly close. September saw the sale of 431,000 fully electric cars for BYD and 435,000 for Tesla. Therefore, it seems as though BYD may beat Tesla any day now.

BYD’s edge against Tesla is not only in terms of the number of sales.

China’s EV giant BYD is slowly closing its profit gap with Tesla. BYD is also leading in the more important figure, profit. This is a vital point, as BYD’s vehicles have generally been cheaper than Tesla’s.

If BYD beats Tesla in this field as well, it could be a brand new world for cheaper electronic transport. This could then extend to make it easier to deliver electronic vehicles for more affordable prices to people across the globe. It may even compete for the cheapest electric vehicle. Essentially, this could also help in reducing carbon emissions in the long run.

The third quarter saw BYD sell over 2 million electric commercial vehicles in total, both hybrid and fully electric. If we divide the total profits for BYD during this period with these car sales, we can see the profit per car. The figure we get is the equivalent of $1,720 per vehicle. Last year, that was at $1,470 per vehicle. This rapid increase shows that the Chinese company is catching up quickly.

Tesla’s profits were $9,500 only last year in the third quarter. Now, at the third quarter of this year, this has already dropped down to $4,260, a noteworthy fall.

If we look at stock performance, we can see the effects this has had already. While both have had drops in stock values, Tesla’s has been considerably worse over the last month, dropping over 18% with BYD only dropping by just over 1%.