Tesla Wins EV Global 2023, Can It Last In 2024?

Cybertruck. (Doc. Tesla)

JAKARTA - Tesla is still the king of a global pure electric car manufacturer with sales of around 1.8 million units throughout 2023, but other manufacturers do not remain silent. BYD also emerged to be the largest seller of environmentally friendly vehicles as a whole, with a score of 3.02 million units covering pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids and hybrids.

BYD's success seemed to remind what happened in 2011 when Elon Musk underestimated BYD when asked if he would become a competitor to Tesla in an interview with Bloomberg.

But in the end in 2023, Elon Musk admits that BYD vehicles are now much more competitive and Tesla's biggest competitor.

What about other electric vehicle manufacturers? It is estimated that in the next few years the competition between BYD and Tesla will be fiercer and difficult to catch up with by other manufacturers.

It is known, since the establishment, Tesla has only focused on producing pure EV electric vehicles which also focus on building supporting infrastructure such as charging. Not surprisingly many years later, all car manufacturers that started to focus on electricity instead chose to join Tesla rather than choosing large investments in charging.

Meanwhile, BYD has since received fresh funding from Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway company, which bought 225 million BYD shares for $22 million in 2008.

Uniquely, Warren Buffet's investment story at BYD is very interesting. To Fortune magazine a year later in 2009, Buffet's right-hand man named Charlie Munger stated that it was he who suggested Buffett invest US$232 million in a relatively unknown Chinese car company called BYD.

As Munger told Fortune in the cover story of 2009, Charlie Munger was fascinated by the vision of founder of BYD a chemical expert who turned entrepreneur Wang Chuanfu, who had built one of the world's largest refill phone battery manufacturers before turning to the automotive sector.

Back at Tesla's 2023 sales, the success of selling 1.8 million BEV cars throughout 2023 was not in line with Elon Musk's target of targeting 2 million vehicles since the beginning of the year.

Meanwhile, BYD surpassed expectations by selling 1.6 million BEV and 1.4 million plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) in 2023. Their total sales reached 3.02 million units, up 62 percent compared to the previous year. This achievement made BYD, a 21-year-old manufacturer, the world's largest electric vehicle seller.

In short, although Tesla still holds a global BEV sales record, BYD is not far behind and has succeeded in proving itself as the overall electric vehicle giant.

This year, competition in the EV market will also be even more exciting, especially with the presence of new players who have ambitions to seize the throne of electric vehicle manufacturers.