Tesla Just Had Its Best Year, but Still Got Passed By BYD
Tesla just had its best sales year ever, beating its sales target and delivering more than 484,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter. Despite that success, the company fell behind Chinese automaker BYD for the first time.
The Tesla Model 3 and Model Y were the runaway sales leaders in the fourth quarter, combining for more than 460,000 units. Tesla lumps the Model S and X together in an “other models” category, which sold just shy of 23,000 units in Q4. The Cybertruck falls into the catch-all category, too, but there were only a handful of deliveries last year.
Tesla delivered more than 1.8 million cars last year out of the 1,845,985 it built, again dominated by the Model 3 and Model Y. The Cybertruck dropped in late November 2023, but the automaker only managed a small number of deliveries. That said, there have been reports of a production ramp-up, with several dozen trucks awaiting deliveries outside Tesla’s Gigafactory in Texas.
While Tesla enjoyed the top EV sales spot for a long time, Chinese automakers have rapidly gained ground. BYD surpassed Tesla, but GAC Aion and SAIC-GM-Wiling are not far behind. Volkswagen, Hyundai, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Kia, and Audi also picked up steam in 2023. Tesla may retake the top spot if it can pull off the affordable model that many have expected for a while, but there has been no solid movement toward a release or announcement on that front.
[Image: Tesla]
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Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.
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“Tesla just had its best sales year ever, beating its sales target and delivering more than 484,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter.”
Thats it? Worldwide? Ouch.
Does BYD make any cars that can meet US-market standards for quality control and refinement? The electric transit buses they've delivered in a couple of US markets are, I understand, horror shows that did not come anywhere close to the specified range and have continuous reliability problems. Meanwhile North American makers are delivering electric buses that do more or less what they claim to.
Really?
How may units has BYD sold in the USA, genius?
Keep Comparing Apples and Oranges.
TESLA ended 2023 with YET ANOTHER EPIC Achievement.
DESPITE the proliferation of 100s of rival models in the US market (NONE of them is BYD, BTW),
AND Despite the lack of new product (the refreshed Model 3 Highland is not yet on sale in the US, and the even bigger home run Refreshed Model Y is coming even later, and the Cybertruck, which will not be as much of a lower-priced, mass market thing as the 3 and the Y, barely started production),
It continues to DOMINATE the US Market, not only selling more than ALL ITS RIVALS COMBINED, but ALSO breaking ITS OWN STELLAR 2022 RECORD.
Now let's watch to see how high the TESLA hating dogs will jump!
Maintenance on an electric car: You believe in climate fraud? You think that electric cars are the answer? I'm just going to leave this here for you.