No, BYD doesn’t sell more EVs than Tesla, and yes, the Financial Times is lying to you.

nope, BYD did not sell more electric vehicles than Tesla in the first half of 2023, despite what many media outlets are reporting today. All from an article published in Financial Timesone of the most influential economic media in the world, with an attractive headline.

Warren Buffett Invested in China Consortium BYD Surpasses Tesla in Global Electric Vehicle Sales, reads the headline. And while China is a huge market where the transition to electric vehicles is accelerating significantly, the company is far from selling as many electric vehicles as the American one.

The sales results report for the first half of 2022 confirms that they sold 641,350 electrified vehicles. Emphasis on “electrified”. The number represents both 100% electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. That is, cars with internal combustion engines (diesel or gasoline) and a battery (usually small) with the ability to recharge from the network. Hence its name.

Of these 641,350,323,519 vehicles are fully electric. Come on, like the ones Tesla sells. Whatever we call a plug-in hybrid an “electric vehicle”, it’s not. And to argue this in an article is to invent numbers to give meaning to a headline that will get a lot of attention. Which, in fact, happened. Article Financial Times today is quoted to the point of disgust.

Yes, that 323,519 100% EVs sold in the first six months of 2022 is an impressive number, with an astronomical increase from 2021. But that’s a lot less than Tesla’s car sales this year.

The company, led by Elon Musk, sold a total of 564,743 units in the first half of 2022. 310,048 units correspond to the first quarter, and 254,695 to the second. All 100% electric as Tesla does not make other types of vehicles. That is a little more than 74% compared to BYD.

Tesla’s numbers are especially surprising when you consider the shutdown of car production they’ve rescheduled at the Shanghai Gigafactory. The Chinese government has decided to reintroduce quarantine measures in the region due to an increase in the number of cases of COVID-19 infection. This has affected those in Fremont and many other facilities that operate from there.

The reality is that it will be difficult to catch up with Tesla for now.

The reality is that it will be difficult to achieve Tesla, at the moment. As a result, the company has more than a five-year advantage, since from the first Model C that rolled off the assembly line in 2012 have always made electric vehicles.

Instead, most automakers waited until 2019 and 2020 to Really accelerate the electrification of its model and begin efforts to phase out internal combustion engines. This includes BYD, which, while one of the largest battery makers in the world, still produces plug-in hybrid vehicles that run on gasoline or diesel.

Tesla’s vehicle sales forecast for 2022 is “more than a million vehicles.” By the end of the period, their number is likely to approach 1.4 million. Meanwhile, BYD estimates they will deliver about 600,000 vehicles during the year.

The situation is similar with traditional producers. While Tesla sold just over 310,000 units during the first quarter of 2022, the Volkswagen group, which includes Audi, Porsche, Seat and more, has reached 100,000 units.

We should not doubt that in the future, some manufacturer will reach and surpass Tesla in terms of sales per year. Whether it’s BYD or any other automaker. But, at least in the short term, they are hard to beat.