BYD expected to be China’s best-selling car brand in November, Tesla gains data By Reuters

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – BYD was the top-selling car brand in China in the first four weeks of November, according to brokerage data, surpassing the Volkswagen brand (ETR:) in a reversal that highlights the pressure on the brands inherited from the world’s largest automaker. market.

Tesla’s (NASDAQ:) retail sales in China also nearly doubled in November, from a year earlier, after the U.S. automaker slashed prices and offered incentives on its Model 3 and Model Y, according to data from China Merchants Bank International (CMBI). .

BYD’s retail sales totaled 152,863 vehicles from Nov. 1 to Nov. 27, marking a nearly 83% increase in average daily sales from the same period a year earlier, the data showed.

BYD’s tally topped Volkswagen’s retail sales by 143,602 retail sales and Toyota Motor (NYSE:) Corp’s 115,272, down 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively, on the year.

However, Volkswagen Group AG (OTC:) still topped BYD’s sales, if you include the 36,847 units sold under the Audi brand.

If the retail sales trend continues throughout the month, it would be the first time that BYD, which only started manufacturing cars in 2003, has topped sales in China and the first time that a company offers a range of plug-in hybrids. and pure electric vehicles (EVs) topped the charts.

Automakers braced for a broader Chinese market slowdown, saying the effect of incentives is fading and the country’s zero-COVID policies have kept consumers away from showrooms and weighed on sentiment as the economy is slowing down.

Overall retail sales of China-produced cars fell 7% year-on-year in terms of average daily sales in the first four weeks of November, compared with a 2% drop in the first three weeks of October, according to CMBI data.

Established global automakers other than Tesla have lost sales and market share in China to domestic rivals who are winning over consumers with a wider range of affordable electric vehicles and features like in-car entertainment and autonomous driving.

Stellantis said in October that its Jeep joint venture in China would file for bankruptcy, the first failed joint venture by a foreign brand in the electric vehicle era.

Other established brands, including Volkswagen, General Motors (NYSE:), Ford and Hyundai, have seen factory utilization in China drop by 30 percentage points to more than 50 percentage points over the past five years.