The wide adoption of electric vehicles is indeed advancing to new record highs, as demonstrated by battery-powered car sales in Q2 2023.
As expected, the leading all-electric OEMs this period were America’s Tesla, China’s BYD, and Germany’s Volkswagen Group.
As per the report, the trio enjoyed year-on-year EV sales in the second quarter of the year. However, order figures remained unchanged from the prior quarter.
Q2 2023 sales results: Tesla vs. BYD vs. Volkswagen Group
World’s most valuable automaker Tesla dominated the BEV market with sales of 466,140 units, up 83% YoY.
China’s industry leader BYD reported an unprecedented YoY sales growth of 95% to 352,163 units.
Interestingly, it seems that Tesla’s significant lead against BYD is waning. The Chinese EV and power battery giant hit approximately 76% of Tesla’s total volume, up by 5 percentage points in the same period in 2022.
Germany’s VW Group ranked third with an impressive sales growth of 53% YoY to 180,239 EVs. Its Q2 2023 sales results are indeed remarkable. However, it also demonstrates that the German legacy automaker is lagging behind the two companies in terms of sales and growth.
Q2 2023 BEV sales:
| OEM | Sales | Change YoY |
| Tesla | 466,140 | up 83% |
| BYD | 352,163 | up 95% |
| VW Group | 180,239 | up 53% |
As you can observe in the table above, Tesla is ahead of BYD by 113,977 unit sales (up 53% YoY). Meanwhile, the Musk-led automaker’s lead over VW Group is 285,901 EV sales, indicating a whopping 109% YoY growth.
YTD sales results: Tesla vs. BYD vs. Volkswagen Group
Tesla nearly hit 900,000 EV sales in the first six months of the year. Meanwhile, BYD managed to top the 600,000 benchmark.
On the other hand, Volkswagen only had around 50% of the Chinese brand’s sales of 300,000 units in H1 2023.
It is worth noting that BYD is steadily demonstrating a remarkable growth rate. Therefore, it would be unsurprising if it ends up overthrowing Tesla in the future.
H1 2023 sales results:
| OEM | Sales | Change YoY |
| Tesla | 889,015 | up 57% |
| BYD | 616,810 | up 91% |
| VW Group | 321,091 | up 48% |
As you can observe in the data above, Tesla ultimately beat BYD with its 272,205 unit sales lead, up 13%. The disparity is even higher, with Volkswagen at 567,924 units, indicating a YoY increase of 63%.
In hindsight, Tesla reported sales of over 1.3 million EVs in FY 2022, representing a YoY growth of 40%. Meanwhile, BYD’s sales were more than 0.9 million (up 184% YoY). Volkswagen struggled to catch up with the EV giants, with sales of over 0.57 million (up 26%).
See Also:
- Indonesia to launch new set of incentives for electric automakers, organizes a meeting with Tesla and BYD
- BYD to intensify competition with Tesla with its new Denza SUV
- Top 10 bestseller EVs in Q1 2023, Tesla secured the top 2 spots while BYD landed five spots
- Tesla, BYD dominate the global EV industry, while Japanese rivals lag behind
- Tesla EVs get faster charging times with BYD batteries
It must be noted that these data excluded sales of Tesla’s Semi and BYD’s commercial EVs and its other brands. However, it included VW Group’s multiple EV brands, including Audi, Skoda, Porsche, Seat/Cupra, and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (vans).
Tesla’s lead in the global EV industry is indeed remarkable, given the growing competition brought on by startups and legacy automakers. It would be exciting to see how BYD would beat Tesla in the future, but probably not this year.
