In the past quarter, Tesla once again sold the most all-electric cars among all automotive groups in the world. However, its advantage over the second-best BYD shrunk by 84% year over year to less than 20,000 vehicles.
As with every quarter, this post will examine the global sales results for battery-electric cars by three automotive groups: Tesla, BYD, and Volkswagen Group, the top ones from North America, Asia, and Europe.
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BYD is still growing, Tesla is not
Global electric car sales increased, and BYD contributed to this growth, while Tesla noted a slight decline compared to 2023. This opens a possibility for the Chinese company to become number one in Q3.
Last quarter, Tesla delivered 443,956 all-electric cars, 5% less than a year ago. Just like in Q1, despite the decline Tesla managed to maintain its leadership position in terms of the number of EVs delivered to customers—all thanks to the noticeable advantage over other manufacturers from previous years.
The issue is that the advantage is shrinking and as soon as in Q3, Tesla might be passed by BYD, which already won one quarter in the past (Q4 2023).
BYD, including its subbrands, increased its EV sales by 21% year-over-year to 426,039 EVs in Q2. This reduced the gap to Tesla by 84%, compared to Q1 2023, to less than 18,000 units.
The largest European automotive group, Volkswagen Group, has struggled this year to increase EV sales, and it seems that it was passed by two Chinese groups: Geely-Volvo and SAIC. The two Chinese groups were slightly ahead of the Volkswagen Group in terms of all-electric car registrations after May.
All-electric car sales in Q2'2024 (YOY change):
- Tesla: 443,956 (down 5%)
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BYD: 426,039 (up 21%) or 96% of Tesla's result
Difference to Tesla: 17,917 (down 84%) -
Volkswagen Group: 180,302 (up 0.03%) or 40.6% of Tesla's result
Difference to Tesla: 263,654 (down 8%)
Tesla vs. BYD vs. Volkswagen Group BEV Car Sales - Q2 2024
After the first half of 2024, Tesla's advantage over BYD exceeds 100,000. This probably means that even if BYD outpaces Tesla in Q3, it will not necessarily become number one for the year. The final battle will be in Q4, and Tesla still appears to be the favorite.
Meanwhile, the Volkswagen Group should be happy to remain in the top five for now.
All-electric car sales in Q1-Q2'2024 (YOY change):
- Tesla: 830,766 (down 7%)
- BYD: 726,153 (up 18%) or 87.4% of Tesla's result
Difference to Tesla: 104,613 (down 62%) - Volkswagen Group: 316,438 (down 1.4%) or 38.1% of Tesla's result
Difference to Tesla: 514,328 (down 9%)
For reference, in 2023, Tesla sold more than 1.80 million all-electric cars, while BYD exceeded 1.57 million. The Volkswagen Group was at about half of BYD's volume, with almost 0.77 million units sold.
This year will be extremely interesting as we see an unprecedented expansion of Chinese manufacturers in the EV segment and basically the first real slowdown at Tesla since 2012, when the company began series production of the Model S. The results of the Volkswagen Group highlight the general challenges and stagnation of the European automotive industry after the majority of EV incentives were withdrawn in some of the largest markets, like Germany.
Info:
- Tesla sales (vehicle deliveries), potentially including a marginal number of Semi
- BYD sales (including subbrands) do not include commercial vehicles (trucks/buses)
- Volkswagen Group includes Volkswagen (cars), Audi, Skoda, Porsche, Seat/Cupra, and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (vans), but for the sake of comparison, we excluded MAN, Scania, and Navistar.
