2024: Tesla sales stall for first time, BYD steams ahead

The world’s number one EV carmaker, Elon Musk’s Tesla, delivered 1,789,226 cars in 2024. That is 1% less than the 1,808,581 in 2023, and it is the first time that Tesla’s growth has stalled in a decade. In 2023, growth was still 38% compared to 2022. That’s a huge difference.

On the other hand, Chinese BYD is number two and is steaming ahead with 41% growth compared to the previous year. It sold 1,764,992 fully electric cars in 2024, leaving the crown by a nose to its American competitor. Contrary to its global sales dip, Tesla still sold 657,000 units in China, which is its second-biggest market besides the US, for the full year 2024, up 8.8 percent.

Half the size of BYD

Tesla might still be the biggest EV maker, but it’s still less than half the size of BYD, which originally started as a battery maker and set a new sales record with over 4.27 million NEVs sold in 2024.

In China, New Energy Vehicles (NEVs) include battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). In March 2022, BYD ceased production and sales of vehicles powered by pure internal combustion engines (ICE). While its home market, China, remains the most important, BYD sold 417,204 ‘NEVs’ overseas in the full year of 2024, up 71.86 percent year-on-year.

Falling short of expectations

Two months ago, Tesla was still expecting slight growth in 2024. Ultimately, it saw a new record of global deliveries of 495,570 electric vehicles in Q4 but fell some 20,000 units short of its own predictions for the last quarter of the year.

Looking at its Chinese competitor, BYD sold 595,413 passenger battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in the fourth quarter, up 13.11 percent year over year and 34.28 percent from the third quarter. That meant BYD jumped over Tesla in BEV sales in Q4, the second time it overtook Tesla, as it did for the fourth quarter of 2023.

Looking at the model breakdown (?), the Model 3 and Model Y (which Tesla always mentions together) accounted for 1,704,093 deliveries in 2024 and the other models for 85,133. Last year, Tesla produced 1,679,338 Model 3/Y and 94,105 other models: the Model S, Model X, and the new Cybertruck. For 2023, Tesla had delivered 1,808,581 cars and produced 1,845,985 vehicles, 1,739,707 Model 3/Ys, and 68,874 ‘other’ models.