Al Root

The battle between Tesla and China's electric vehicle leader BYD is heating up. BYD just landed a big blow.

BYD's sales topped Tesla's for the first time, coming in at $28.2 billion in the third quarter. Tesla posted $25.2 billion in comparable sales for the quarter.

BYD is China's largest EV maker and it sells a larger volume of cars than Tesla. The cars, however, are lower priced and include plug-in hybrid vehicles as well as all-electric cars. Tesla only sells all-electric vehicles.

In the third quarter, BYD delivered about 1.1 million vehicles including roughly 443,000 all-electric models and 686,000 plug-in hybrids. Tesla delivered about 463,000 all-electric cars.

There are other products that make up each company's sales. Tesla sells backup battery storage, for example, and BYD sells consumer electronics. Car sales account for roughly 80% of both companies' total revenue.

Tesla still has the edge over BYD in profits. BYD earned roughly $1.1 billion in third-quarter operating profit. Tesla earned about $2.8 billion. However, those numbers are difficult to compare; BYD and Tesla include some different cost items in operating expenses.

Tesla stock was down 0.3% in early trading at $258.57, while S&P 500 futures were up less than 0.1% and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down 0.2%. BYD stock dropped 0.7% in overseas trading. The Hong Kong-listed shares were up about 38% this year.

BYD's overall results look fine. Sales were in line with Wall Street estimates, according to FactSet.

Through Tuesday trading, Tesla stock was up about 22% since it reported better-than-expected third-quarter numbers on Oct. 23. Recent gains left Tesla shares up about 4% this year.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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October 30, 2024 08:57 ET (12:57 GMT)

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