BYD rides Dolphin to chase down Tesla in race for global EV dominance

Global sales of battery electric vehicles jumped 67.8 per cent in 2022 to 7.89 million units in 2022, as China’s BYD continued to narrow the gap to Tesla in the race to become the top selling EV brand in the world.

According to research released this week by TrendForce, the total market for what it calls New Energy Vehicles, including full battery electrics, plug in hybrids and the almost invisible hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, jumped 63.6 per cent to more than 10.6 million in the past year.

Sales of PHEVs similarly increased by 50.8% to 2.74 million units. It forecasts the total NEV market to grow to more than 14.5 million in 2023.

Within the BEV market, Tesla remained the top brand by vehicle sales in 2022, but its market share slipped to 16.6% as Chinese rival BYD increased its share to 11.5%.

TrendForce points to the success of BYD’s popular Dolphin EV hatchback, with the model accounting for 23% of BYD’s BEV sales in 2022 thanks to its focus on affordability – a trend not commonly seen out of Asia, but one that will be needed for EVs to reach necessary levels.

While the top four BEV makers remained much the same as 2021, a number of changes took place in the remaining six positions. Ora XPeng, and Renault all found themselves pushed out of the top 10 group, while luxury European car brand BMW entered the group for the first time.

TrendForce also highlighted the steadily improvement in vehicle production, with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic finally beginning to tail-off matched with increasing consumer demand for EVs. As such, EV sales should continue to increase.

Conversely, according to TrendForce, global inflation, rising interest rates, and the recent wave of corporate layoffs could impact consumer confidence during 2023.