- BYD and Tesla captured 30% of the global plug-in vehicle market in the first half of 2024.
- BMW was in third place ahead of Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz or Geely.
Sales of electric vehicles have shown signs of a slowdown in some markets, but the numbers are still up over 2023, bolstered in some areas by increased sales of plug-in hybrids. Two manufacturers dominate the plug-in side of the market globally, BYD and Tesla, but sales data from the first part of 2024 reveals a third-place surprise, BMW.
According to data published by EV Volumes, BMW, which has done quite well in the U.S. so far in 2024, managed to sell over 212,000 plug-in vehicles (EVs and PHEVs) from January until May, putting it behind BYD, whose 1.2 million sales put it way ahead of anybody else (and accounted for 21% of all plug-ins sold around the world) and Tesla with about 625,000 sales. It is also more than Hyundai and Kia’s combined sales, which amount to about 195,000 vehicles.
BMW itself reported last month that it had sold a total of 179,557 battery-electric vehicles (not including plug-in hybrids) in the first half of 2024, which represents a 34.1% increase over H1 2023. The manufacturer also reported combined sales of electrified vehicles (EVs and PHEVs) of 269,065 units from January until June of this year, marking a 9.6% increase compared to the same span of 2023.
China’s Wuling, which mostly sells small vehicles, racked up 179,700 plug-in sales, followed by Volkswagen with 157,200, Mercedes-Benz with 150,600 and Geely with almost 146,000 sales.
BYD’s ascent in the last two years is remarkable, proving that the world wants affordable plug-in vehicles. In 2023, it managed to sell a total of over 3 million plug-ins—that’s 62% more than in 2022. This year it’s expected to come close to 3.5 million combined EV and PHEV sales. It’s worth noting that BYD’s pure EV sales have contracted slightly in 2024, but the boom in PHEV sales has more than made up for it.
In July it sold about 130,000 full EVs, which is 4% less than in July 2023, but it sold over 210,000 PHEVs, up 62% year-over-year. Most of these plug-ins were sold in China, but the over 30,000 vehicles that it exported represented a 65% increase over 2023. BYD wants to expand outside China and become a truly global player, and it’s already present in Europe (where new import duties are threatening the affordability of its vehicles), as well as in certain South American and Asian markets.
