You heard that right. Surprisingly, it’s not Tesla or any brand from America, Japan, and Korea. The world’s best selling EV brand is BYD, a Chinese automaker based in Shenzhen and backed by American billionaire Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway.
For the first half of 2022, BYD sold 641,350 new energy vehicles, a 314.9 percent spike from its sales figures in the first half of 2021. Half of this figure, or around 323K, is battery electric vehicles, then the rest is plug-in hybrids. Under China’s sales rules, PHEVs and BEVs are counted together as new energy vehicles (NEVs).
For reference, the popular US-based Tesla was able to sell just 564,743 vehicles in the first two quarters of 2022, putting it behind BYD.
BYD has already revealed its sales target of NEVs in 2022 during its investor conference call. The target is between 1.1 million units and 1.2 million units. That includes 600,000 pure electric vehicles and 500,000 to 600,000 plug-in hybrid vehicles.
Most of BYD’s EVs are sold in its homeland China. Its EV line-up includes the Han EV sedan, the Dolphin hatchback, the Song EV SUV, and the Atto 3 SUV.
In addition, BYD also managed to overtake LG as the world’s second-biggest producer of high-voltage batteries. LG is now in the third spot, while China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology, known as CATL, remains the world leader.
