Tesla and BYD refresh the sales record for new energy vehicles.

Tesla reported in its earnings report released last Sunday that it delivered a record 466,140 vehicles globally in the second quarter, surpassing Wall Street's expectations. Among them, Model 3 and Model Y account for 96% of global deliveries. Model 3 and Y account for 96% of Tesla's global deliveries.

Meanwhile, China's best-selling car brand BYD reported its best quarterly sales performance ever, reaching 700,244 new energy vehicles, half of which are pure electric vehicles and the other half are plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

Tesla Inc. and BYD Co. have set new sales records, further expanding their leading positions as the world's best-selling clean energy vehicle manufacturers.

New Energy Vehicle Leaders See Growth

Despite fiercer competition, Tesla and BYD's sales continue to grow

Tesla's Performance

Tesla's performance indicates that Elon Musk's commitment to pursue sales volume through price reductions has produced the expected results. Bloomberg's earlier survey projected the company to ship 448,350 vehicles this quarter, but actual deliveries surpassed this number.

"This is a significant breakthrough," Ben Kallo of Robert W. Baird said in a telephone interview on Sunday: "This is a huge exceedance of expectations. Although people are still worried about another round of price cuts, this significant number of deliveries has reduced such risks."

This is the highest quarterly delivery volume for Tesla, based in Austin, with an 83% increase compared to the same period last year. The company also managed to narrow the gap between production and delivery to 13,560 vehicles in the second quarter, a figure closely watched by analysts. In the first quarter of this year, Tesla produced almost 18,000 more vehicles than it delivered to customers.

Kallo stated, "The gap between production and delivery is narrowing. Before, everyone was worried about the inventory increase, but now it seems the inventory has returned to normal."

Tesla has many means to drive sales by selling cars directly to consumers. In addition to a comprehensive price reduction earlier this year, the company also launched some promotional measures, such as three months of free fast charging for U.S. vehicles delivered before June 30, to attract buyers.

Tesla does not publish quarterly delivery volumes by model or region, with models 3 and Y accounting for 96% of sales. Besides, Tesla also produces Model S and Model X.

Tesla remains the largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the United States, but it faces new competition worldwide. In its second-largest market, China, Tesla has fallen far behind BYD, which has a newer product line and growing global ambitions. It has cut prices of its premium models in China by more than 4.5%, and last month, it also decided to offer cash subsidies to some buyers of its Model 3 cars.

BYD Record

A closely watched indicator of pure electric vehicle sales leadership shows that Tesla, the leader in the pure electric vehicle sales field, has expanded its lead over BYD, despite the Chinese manufacturer continuing to grow globally through its affordable products.

However, BYD's record quarterly sales (inferred from its monthly sales data) grew by 98% year-on-year. As sales continue to rebound, this growth marks a continuation of the rebound after a weak first three months. This new quarterly record surpasses its best record set in the last three months of 2022, with the company selling a record 251,685 new energy vehicles in June.

This is also good news for other Chinese car companies. Small startups like Li Xiang's company reached new monthly highs in deliveries, with 32,575 vehicles, while XPeng Motors and NIO Inc. also saw moderate growth. The electric car brand Aiways, owned by Guangzhou Automobile Group, stood out with a monthly delivery volume of 45,013 units.