Source: BYD/Weibo
China's BYD looks set to overtake Ford soon in terms of annual shipments this year, which would be a milestone for the company, firmly placing it among the world's top ten automakers, Bloomberg reported.
BYD sold 534,003 vehicles in October, a figure that nearly matched Ford's year-to-date sales, Bloomberg reported. Ford only reports its global sales every quarter but has been averaging about 1.1 million vehicles per quarter for the past three periods.
BYD has already topped Tesla in quarterly revenue for the first time, as Electrek report. Tesla, meanwhile, fell short of expectations with $25.47 billion in Q3 revenue last week. Tesla's gross margin rose to 19.8%, compared with BYD's gross margin to 21.9% in the third quarter, up from 18.7% in Q2.
“Reaching four million is a milestone,” auto industry consultant Michael Dunne told Bloomberg, referring to the company's annual delivery target. “BYD will be seeing Ford in the rearview mirror.”
BYD looks set to overtake fellow Big Three automaker Detroit, with demand in China fueled by government subsidies that encourage people to trade in their old EVs or ICE vehicles for something new – and BYD offers a range of -hybrids are best sold in China. and BEVs.
BYD will quickly overtake Ford in deliveries this year
In the third quarter, BYD managed to outsell Ford by 40,000 units, bringing in about 1.13 million cars, mostly passenger cars, and several thousand trucks and buses, Bloomberg reported.
This week, BYD decided to suspend its plans to enter Canada, which may be blocked by the country's 100% tariff on EVs imported from China and the upcoming decisions from the US. The move puts a pin on the plan after months of legal work over the summer, when BYD held a meeting with dealers across Canada to discuss a potential distribution network for the car and talked to lobbyists about how the federal government could get on board.
Newly elected US President Donald Trump, despite his new relationship with Elon Musk, has said he will withdraw funding for Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, which includes more than $8.5 billion to help Americans cut back on their lives. Trump said that cars made in Mexico would face a 200% tariff, while cars from China, Europe and elsewhere would see higher tariffs. Chinese cars are already banned from coming to the US with a 100% tariff.
After last week's election news, Tesla, Lucid, Rivian, and EV battery maker LG all said they are ready to work with Trump to ensure EV technology continues at full speed.
However, the Big Three in Detroit – General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler parent company Stellantis – will likely be the biggest “winners” of a Trump win, meaning they won't have to pull out their portfolios and switch to EVs at any rate, Reuters reports.
Although BYD has yet to enter the US or Canada in passenger cars, the company doesn't seem too worried. BYD's senior vice president He Zhiqi “bragged on his Weibo account earlier this month that BYD increased production capacity by nearly 200,000 units in the August to October period by hiring the same number of people in its businesses including parts,” Bloomberg reported.
Meanwhile, die-hard automakers are scrambling — cutting workers, cutting production, and scaling back forecasts. This week, Nisson announced it was in “emergency” mode, selling part of its stake in Mitsubishi, reducing production capacity, and laying off 9,000 workers.
Last month, Volkswagen – which currently has 10 plants and 300,000 employees in Germany – announced plans to close three German factories, the first time in the company's 87-year history that it has closed factories on its territory. The plan involves cutting tens of thousands of jobs and reducing wages for the remaining 10% of workers.
Back in the US, Stellantis is laying off 1,100 workers at the Toledo Assembly Complex.
“BYD has no peer in the world right now,” Big Three consultant Tu Le, of Sino Auto Insights, told Bloomberg. “Legacy automakers appear to be collateral damage as BYD moves like a freight train toward becoming the world's largest company.”
Photos: courtesy of BYD
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