- Chinese giant BYD sold over half a million cars in November.
- It's enough to possibly surpass traditional giants like Ford and Honda.
- With great sales numbers like these, the automaker is on track to surpass its goal of delivering four million cars this year.
Everybody knows about BYD even if it doesn’t sell passenger cars in the United States. That’s because it’s one of the world’s largest automakers and at one point it was the largest all-electric car maker, toppling Tesla for a few short and sweet months.
But BYD is only getting started. After making a name for itself in China’s domestic car market as the leading builder of so-called new energy vehicles (NEVs), the company is coming after some of the biggest names in the industry: Ford and Honda, both widely recognized brands with rich histories behind them.
But history can’t influence global buyers’ decisions, it seems, as BYD is on course to surpass Ford and Honda by the end of this year—if everything goes according to plan.
Last month, the Chinese automaker sold a whopping 506,804 vehicles around the world, according to data filed with Hong Kong’s stock exchange yesterday quoted by Fortune. But that’s not all—year-to-date, BYD has sold 3.7 million cars, a 40% increase from last year.
If the automaker manages to keep the impressive sales momentum through the end of December, it will most likely surpass its goal of selling four million cars globally. In the meantime, it could also pass Ford and Honda, marking a major shift in the way consumers around the world make their car-buying decisions.
In the first nine months, Ford sold 3.3 million cars globally, while Honda sold 3.1 million cars. If the two companies’ pace continues until the end of the year, we could see Ford closing 2024 with 4.3 million sales and Honda with 4 million units sold. If BYD ramps up sales by 100,000 units in December, its final tally for this year would be around 4.3 million units.
Next year, BYD aims to sell between 5 and 6 million cars, according to a Citi note published after a meeting with the automaker's management.
We’ll know for sure what the scoreboard will look like sometime in January, but whatever the results, one thing is clear: BYD is here to win. Even without a presence in the passenger vehicle market in the United States, its popularity skyrocketed in just a few short years, boosted by so-called traditional automakers’ inability to adapt to the intricacies of the Chinese car market.
BYD still has some work to do to topple the world’s top players, but if its previous performance is anything to go by, it won’t be long before we see its name at the top of the global automaker list. Volkswagen, for instance, sold 6.5 million vehicles in the first nine months of the year, while Toyota sold 8.3 million vehicles in the first 10 months. Tesla, meanwhile, delivered 1.3 million all-electric cars in the first three quarters–100,000 more than BYD. That said, BYD’s portfolio includes EVs and plug-in hybrids, which is why its overall sales figures are higher than Tesla’s.
