Overview
- Tesla, which reported first-quarter deliveries Monday, posted 358,023 battery-electric sales versus BYD’s 310,389 to retake the quarterly lead.
- Tesla’s total rose about 6.5% from a year earlier, while BYD’s battery-electric sales fell roughly 25% year over year.
- Reuters reported Tesla built more vehicles than it sold in the quarter, leaving more than 50,000 cars in inventory and pointing to uneven demand.
- China’s January policy shifts capped trade-in support at 20,000 yuan and replaced a full exemption with a 5% purchase tax on EVs, pressuring BYD’s home market.
- BYD still sold 695,772 new-energy vehicles that include plug-in hybrids in Q1, yet its pure EV deliveries fell to 310,389 as the global race stays tight.