Tesla Exceeds Expectations but Loses Ground to China's BYD in Global Electric Car Sales

In the fourth quarter, Tesla Inc. surpassed expectations with an unexpectedly high delivery of cars, but still fell behind China's BYD Co. in global electric car sales. Despite beating market analysts' predictions, it could not match BYD's strong growth.

In the last quarter, Tesla managed to deliver 484,507 cars, slightly more than what analysts predicted with an average of 483,173 deliveries. During the same time frame, BYD sold 526,409 pure EVs, putting it in the lead as the largest EV manufacturer, largely due to its extensive and affordable lineup in China.

Although Tesla, based in Austin, reached its annual delivery target of 1.8 million cars, it failed to realize the larger vision that Elon Musk, the company's CEO, had presented the year before. Musk had announced a potential production of 2 million cars, but a series of price cuts did not lead to the demand required for such a production volume.

Tesla's shares were up about 1% in regular trading in New York on Tuesday. The stock had rebounded strongly the year before with a 102% gain, after suffering a record drop in 2022 with Musk's takeover of Twitter, now X.

The shift in leadership for electric car sales reflects China's increasing dominance in the international auto industry. Having overtaken the US, South Korea and Germany in recent years, China may now also pass Japan as the world's top exporter of passenger cars by 2023.

Tesla brings in more revenue and profit than BYD, as it sells significantly more expensive vehicles and relies mainly on two models for most of its sales. The Model Y, a sporty SUV, and the Model 3 sedan accounted for 95% of deliveries in the fourth quarter.

Toward the end of the year, Musk expanded Tesla's lineup by introducing the Cybertruck, several years after the original plan. Tesla did not specify the number of stainless steel pickups manufactured and delivered before the end of the year.

The Cybertruck launch marks Tesla's entry into the highly competitive truck market in the US. Musk has warned that it could take the company 12 to 18 months to reach mass production and a positive cash flow with the hard-to-make vehicle, which is packed with new technology.