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Last week, I wrote generally about the idea that BYD’s strong upward trend, Toyota’s seeming lack of a serious EV plan (including continued daydreams about hydrogen), and Volkswagen’s struggles in China could lead to BYD becoming the #1 top selling automaker in the world. I didn’t dive deeply into recent sales numbers because I figured we’re still a fairly long ways off from this happening even if it does happen in time. However, some reader comments pulled in sales numbers that made me realize we’re a bit closer than I thought and it’s worth starting a regular comparison of the numbers today. I’ll split this piece into two parts — top selling auto brands (with one especially notable point in bold) and top selling auto groups.
Top Selling Auto Brands in the World
First of all, these were the 20 top selling auto brands globally in 2023:
Toyota — 9,483,137
Volkswagen — 5,276,200
Ford — 4,246,000
Hyundai — 3,993,179
Honda — 3,854,000
Nissan — 3,290,271
Kia — 3,087,384
Suzuki — 3,072,824
BYD — 2,885,066
Chevrolet — 2,790,000
Mercedes-Benz — 2,491,600
BMW — 2,252,793
Changan — 1,899,382
Audi — 1,895,240
Tesla — 1,808,581
Renault — 1,570,728
Wuling — 1,351,425
Fiat — 1,350,000
Geely — 1,341,065
Chery — 1,311,361
You can see there that BYD is in 9th, and at just about 30% of Toyota’s total. But let’s keep in mind that the two brands will be moving toward each other — BYD probably won’t have to climb up to Toyota’s 2023 level to take #1.
Also clear is that if BYD continues to grow so strongly, it’s got a few automakers within its sights that it should be able to quickly pass — Suzuki for sure, Kia (though, Kia has been doing alright itself), and Nissan (which has been struggling massively since Carlos Ghosn was jailed in Japan). Beyond that, Honda and Hyundai are just about a million units ahead, and then BYD would be in 4th.
Naturally, Toyota really is far, far ahead of BYD. There’s a big mountain to climb, and Toyota would also have to roll down that mountain a good ways in order for BYD to get to the top of the podium anytime soon. Also, Volkswagen in second place there is still at twice the sales of BYD, so it’s a similar story. The difference, arguably, is that Volkswagen is handling the EV transition better, but it’s not exactly excelling there either, and it’s also rapidly losing the big Chinese auto market to Chinese automakers. (Perhaps its partnership with Xpeng will help the company stop the bleeding.)
Here’s the really inspiring point for BYD fans, though: BYD sold 342,383 vehicles in July 2024. Toyota sold 857,982. Looking at that month alone (the most recent I found data for), BYD’s sales have risen to 40% of Toyota’s sales! So, from 2023 (full year) to July 2024, BYD’s sales have gone from about 30% of Toyota’s total to about 40% of Toyota’s total. In that list above, #3 Ford’s total is about 45% of Toyota’s total. So, even if BYD isn’t close to #1 yet, it’s highly possible BYD is already closing in on a podium position. We shall see.
A BYD Sea Lion 06 at the Brisbane lookout. Photo courtesy of Majella Waterworth.
Toyota BZ4X EV and RAV4 Prime. Photo by Kyle Field | CleanTechnica.
You may also note that Tesla is 15th on that list. Naturally, if it could return to previous growth rates, it could rapidly climb up the top 20 list as well, but its sales actually declined in the first half of 2024, so we’ll have to see where that goes.
Top Selling Auto Groups in the World
Okay, that was auto brands, but what about auto groups? Toyota gets a boost here from adding Lexus and Daihatsu, and Volkswagen gets an even bigger boost by adding several auto brands. From this data source, BYD’s numbers are the same, which surprises me since my understanding was that there were a few auto brands (like Denza) that were not included in the other numbers but should be included here. However, I’ve got to go with the official data that I’ve found.
Toyota (includes Lexus and Daihatsu) — 11,097,836
Volkswagen (includes Audi, Skoda, Seat, Cupra, Porsche, Lamborghini) — 9,240,000
Hyundai–Kia — 7,080,563
General Motors (includes Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac) — 6,200,000
Nissan–Renault–Mitsubishi — 5,649,999
Stellantis (includes Fiat, Peugeot-Citroen, Jeep, Ram, Opel–Vauxhall, Alfa Romeo) — 5,602,268
Ford — 4,246,000
Honda — 3,854,000
Suzuki — 3,072,824
BYD — 2,885,066
Mercedes–Benz — 2,491,600
BMW — 2,252,793
Changan — 1,899,382
Tesla — 1,808,581
Wuling — 1,351,425
Geely — 1,341,065
Chery — 1,311,361
Mazda — 1,244,613
Subaru — 912,452
MG — 840,000
So, BYD has a bigger hill to climb here, but it’s essentially the same story. Tesla, you’ll note, actually climbed one position despite sales being the same. That’s because Audi was right above it in the brand ranking but Audi’s total got included in the Volkswagen Group total in the #2 position here.
Returning to those July 2024 figures referenced above, Toyota Group as a whole had 924,918 sales in July 2024 worldwide, while BYD had the aforementioned 342,383. That means BYD’s sales total was 37% of Toyota Group’s sales total. It will be interesting to watch BYD’s rise and see how these totals and percentages change over time.
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