BYD hops over Honda in Q2 as world’s 7th biggest carmaker

Chinese Build Your Dreams (BYD) jumped over Japanese carmakers Honda and Nissan in Q2 2024 to the seventh spot in the top ten of the world’s biggest car manufacturers. According to data from the automotive industry portal Marklines, it sold 980,000 units, a 40% growth, partly thanks to overseas sales. It tripled this year to 105,000 units, approximately 4% of China’s total 2.79 million vehicle exports.

At the end of June, BYD still ranked tenth. Toyota, which ranked first year-over-year in 2023 with 10,527,960 cars sold, remains the leader despite a 4% decline and 2.63 million units sold this year. Volkswagen, number two in the world in 2023 with 8,675,377, also saw its sales decline by 4%, while South Korean Hyundai-Kia Group (6,759,865) only lost 1%.

Close to Ford’s heels

With almost 1 million cars sold in 2024, BYD is close to Ford’s heels, which sold 1.04 million vehicles this year. Ford was number seven in 2023, with 4,025,095 vehicles sold. BYD sold 3,135,384 cars last year. GM, for instance, was number four in 2023, with 6,052,969, and so far, it has registered 1.29 million units in 2024.

BYD jumped over Nissan as a ‘single’ brand. However, the Renault-Nissan alliance was still the world’s sixth-largest vehicle manufacturer in 2023, with 5,293,876 vehicles, following the Stellantis group, which sold 5,949,634 cars.

In Europe, BYD faces one of the lowest newly imposed import tariffs, 17%, on top of the 10% already existing. In its home country, BYD has been forcing a fierce price war since the beginning of this year, cutting its prices and forcing everyone else to follow.

One of Europe’s leading brands?

Still, BYD aims to be considered one of ‘Europe’s leading brands’ in five years. “Five years from now, we would like consumers to view BYD as like one of the European brands, and when they think about BYD, they think about it as more like the Apple of the automotive industry,” senior vice president Stella Li, BYD’s number two, told the English magazine Auto Express. “We want people to feel like we are a European company and an established manufacturer here.”

For Japanese companies like Honda, which lags in pure electric vehicles compared to the Chinese, that market becomes increasingly difficult. That’s one of the reasons why Japanese car manufacturers Nissan and Honda officially confirmed plans for a strategic partnership in electric cars and other areas in March 2024.

Mitsubishi joined the Nissan-Honda alliance in August 2024 to play catch-up with foreign rivals in developing electric vehicles. For all Japanese carmakers, the US market, where the Chinese are fenced off by sky-high import tariffs imposed by the Biden Administration, will be even more crucial.