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Vehicle sales at China’s BYD soared 58 per cent in the first three months of the year in a stark contrast to continuing declining demand for Tesla’s electric vehicles across Europe.
The Shenzhen-based group said on Tuesday that it delivered 986,098 passenger vehicles in the first quarter, of which 416,388 were pure EVs, up 39 per cent. The strong start to the year came as BYD’s annual sales recently topped $100bn for the first time on the back of resurgent demand in hybrid vehicles in its home market.
Meanwhile, analysts warned that Tesla’s first-quarter deliveries released this week were likely to show a drop of more than 10 per cent as sales in France and other European markets continued to fall in March despite a key model upgrade.
One bright spot was Norway, where the new Model Y, launched in the first week of March, reclaimed its status as the country’s best-selling car following two months of sharp declines. Registrations in the country fell only 1 per cent to 2,211 cars, recovering from a 48 per cent decline in February.
Tesla began delivering the upgraded Model Y — its most popular model — in late February in China and from early March in Europe. However, registrations of new car sales in France fell 37 per cent year-on-year in March to 3,157 vehicles, while those in Sweden fell 64 per cent to 911 units, according to official data released on Tuesday.
Tesla sales have plummeted in Europe since the start of the year, but analysts had been divided on whether the decline was mainly driven by a backlash to chief executive Elon Musk’s heavy interventions in regional politics or an ageing product portfolio.
Even before the release of the March data, analysts have been downgrading their forecasts for Tesla’s first-quarter deliveries, which are usually released on the second day of April.
Last week, Deutsche Bank downgraded its forecast by about 50,000 to 345,000 vehicles, which would amount to a 11 per cent year-on-year decline. RBC Capital Markets is expecting deliveries of 364,000 units.
“Beyond the numbers, our sense is there is some level of brand damage happening in western Europe and pockets within the US or Canada caused by Elon Musk’s political activities, in turn hurting demand,” Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu wrote in a note.
Tesla vehicles and dealerships have become targets for protest in the US and Europe following Musk’s unprecedented foray into European politics and his outsized influence at the White House.
Tesla is considered the best positioned among carmakers to weather Donald Trump’s tariff war with its strong manufacturing footprint in America. But the company is still exposed since it sources some of its vehicle components from outside the US.
It recently warned that Trump’s tariffs could also make it a target of retaliatory tariffs against the US and increase the cost of making vehicles in America.
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