The Chinese car manufacturer BYD is expected to lose the position of the world’s largest electric car manufacturer to its US rival Tesla in the first quarter.
According to a statement on Monday evening, BYD sold a good 300,000 electric cars from January to March. That was a 43 percent decline from the record volume in the previous quarter.
On average, analysts expect Tesla to sell a good 458,000 vehicles in the first three months of the year. The electric car pioneer from the USA publishes its sales figures on Tuesday.
Last year, BYD had success in its home country China Tesla trumps and in the largest car market in the world Volkswagen as the market leader, measured in terms of total sales of cars with all types of drive. For this year, BYD is targeting sales growth of 20 percent to 3.6 million vehicles.
1.2 million cars from China
According to state media, China exported 1.2 million cars in 2023 – almost 78 percent more year-on-year. In Germany According to data from the Federal Motor Transport Authority, the number of newly registered vehicles from China rose by 47.6 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year. However, in terms of numbers, Chinese cars, with 3,699 units, were far behind the competition from other countries. There were also none from China among the top five import brands.
Chinese car manufacturers have now discovered shipping for themselves. The almost 200-meter-long “BYD Explorer 1” weighed anchor in the port of the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen on Tuesday. There are more than 5,000 BYD electric cars parked on board the freighter. It is the first so-called roll-on-roll-off freighter that is intended to bring the Chinese cars into the world. The fleet is expected to grow to eight ships within two years.
“The main reason to transport so many cars from China to Europe now is to reduce transport costs and make the industrial chain truly controllable and autonomous,” says expert Cui Dongshu. The head of China’s Passenger Car Association (CPCA) notes that carmakers were previously unable to book ships to take their cars to other markets.
Saic also sets sail
Own roll-on-roll-off freighters, on which the cars can get up and off quickly at the destination port, made the schedules controllable and spared the companies from restrictions that might arise from transport by other providers.
Next to BYD stood out also the state car manufacturer Saic, which runs a joint venture with Volkswagen, set sail with its first own car freighter “Saic Anji Sincerity” in January. On board: 3,700 cars headed for Germany.
The state-owned company Chery also expects to deliver its first freighter this year. Under the current conditions, a BYD ship needs around 100 days for a round trip, calculates Qian Renjie from the Duisburg CAR Center Automotive Research. Over the course of a year, the group’s planned eight freighters could theoretically bring up to 168,000 electric cars to Europe on three round trips each.