BYD is now China’s best-selling car brand for the first time, dethroning Volkswagen by selling more than 440,000 cars in its home nation in the first quarter of the year. The latter, who only moved a total of 427,247 units in the same period, has been the best-selling brand in China since at least 2008, when data from the China Automotive Technology and Research Centre first became available.
The Chinese carmker’s meteoric rise to the top means it has even outpaced its Chairman, Wang Chuanfu’s own projection of overtaking Volkswagen by the end of 2023, Automotive News Europe reports.
“BYD is very, very strong,” Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume said during an event at the Shanghai motor show this month. “In the end, not everything is about volume. We want to have a successful business, and it is more important to be the best international group here in China.”
The strong performance is not just restricted to China, too. BYD sold a total of 1.86 million vehicles last year, more than it did in the last four years combined. In the first quarter of 2023, the company sold almost 550,000 cars globally – a convincing result from the company’s recent push for overseas sales in markets such as Europe, Latin America, and Asia – including Malaysia.
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The rise in sales is also reflective of the growing influence of the Chinese brands in the electrification era. BYD accounted for two in every five new-energy vehicle sales in China in the first quarter, while only 6% of Volkswagen’s sales were from EVs.
BYD is aiming to sell at least three million vehicles globally this year. To date, the company has already sold more than 2,000 units of the BYD Atto 3 here in Malaysia, with half of those delivered within the first 100 days of sale.
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