Chinese car maker BYD (BYDDY) said it wanted rival Tesla’s (TSLA) U.K. crown after British sales surged nearly tenfold in the last four weeks. However, its shares still slipped over 3%.
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BYD revealed that it had sold a best-ever 11,271 vehicles in the U.K. during September, compared with just 1,150 in the same month last year.
SEAL of Success
It saw its market share accelerate to 3.6% during the month putting it in second place behind Elon Musk’s Tesla in terms of EV sales.
It sees BYD overtake established brands including Renault and SEAT, while making the U.K. its biggest market outside China for the first time.
The record-breaking month brings BYD UK’s total third-quarter sales to more than 16,000 units, up from 10,000 in the second quarter. Leading the brand’s performance is the SEAL U DM-i, BYD’s flagship plug-in hybrid SUV, which accounted for 7,524 sales between July and September.
It continues BYD’s rapid global sales rise over the last few months – see below:
Bono Ge, country manager at BYD UK, said: “To see us achieve our largest ever sales month in the UK is clearly fantastic, but to become the largest overseas market for BYD too, makes me immensely proud.”
Grant Free
He also told the Financial Times that Tesla’s leadership in the U.K. was in its sights, declaring that he wants BYD to become the nation’s biggest EV and plug-in hybrid vehicle manufacturer.
“We want to see steady growth and we want people to see we are a technology company,” Ge said. “We will bring our ultrafast charging technology to the U.K. and other parts of Europe next year.”
Its success comes despite receiving no benefit from a £650 million U.K. government subsidy scheme aimed at driving EV demand. Chinese-made cars were omitted from the scheme because of concerns over the amount of emissions caused during manufacturing.
BYD is also pressuring Tesla in Europe. In August, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), Tesla’s EU sales fell 36.6% to 8,220 cars, cutting its market share from 2% last year to 1.2%. In contrast, BYD sold 9,130 vehicles, marking a 201.3% increase and boosting its market share to 1.3%.
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