BYD Becomes 3rd Best Selling Auto Brand in World! (CHART)

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Last Updated on: 5th February 2025, 12:36 pm

Last week, I reported on BYD’s climb up the ranks of the top selling automakers or auto groups in the world. That is a bit of a tricky business because of the non-100% partnerships between different companies to create “groups” and “alliances” and joint ventures. However, one clear ranking that is cleaner and simpler is the brand ranking. Whereas BYD Group includes BYD, Denza, Yangwang, and Fangchengbao, the BYD brand is … BYD.

So, as a brand, where has BYD risen? Ah, yes, you already read the headline — to 3rd! BYD was the 3rd best selling auto brand in the world in 2024. This means that BYD rose 6 positions year over year — from 9th in 2023. Of course, remember that BYD only sells plugin vehicles. So, the companies that claim people don’t want electric cars and they shouldn’t be forced to sell more of them need to reckon with the fact that the fastest rising automaker in the world just jumped from 9th place to 3rd in one year selling only fully electric cars and plugin hybrids.

By the way, BYD was ranked 49th in the world five years earlier, in 2019.

So, this is where things stand now (or, well, where things stood in 2024):

Let’s also briefly look at how sales of these automakers changed year over year:

Toyota sales (10.7% global market share) decreased 0.7%
Volkswagen sales (5.8% global market share) were essentially stable
BYD sales (4.5% global market share) increased 41.6%
Honda sales decreased 3.1%
Ford sales decreased 0.9%
Hyundai sales decreased 3.7%
Nissan sales increased 0.1%
Chevrolet sales decreased 2.9%
Kia sales decreased 1.9%
Mercedes sales increased 1.5%

That’s quite a difference in trends, isn’t it?

It’s very possible BYD could rise to #2 globally in 2025. Funny enough, this is to essentially no fanfare or hype. Imagine if Tesla just jumped up from 9th to 3rd in the global auto market. Imagine if it grew from 49th in 2019 to 2nd in 2025! Well, one thing we can assume is it would get a lot more press. Another thing we can assume is the stock price would be going through the roof for that reason … and not for whatever reason it’s been going through the roof this year despite 2024 sales being down year over year.

Also, as a reader wrote a month ago, “Tesla has market capitalisation more than 10 times higher than BYD — company that sells as many BEVs, more PHEVs than BEVs, is growing 40 percent year on year, and sells ten times more models. Tesla has only two mass market models (very good cars, although not everyone wants computers on wheels), no plans for extending that and toxic right wing extremist at the helm. FSD as a major differentiation from the competition is a pipe dream. Owners of TSLA shares are about to awaken by very rude reality very soon.” I’m more open minded about what Tesla can do with FSD, but reader “pohjois” might be right on that matter, and they certainly are on the preceding matters.

Someone has brought up that they didn’t know how to invest in BYD because it isn’t on the US stock market, and he requested that we explain how to invest in the company. If you are in that boat and are not aware, you can still buy foreign stocks through popular online stock brokers. BYD — OTC:BYDDY — is priced at $72.87 as I write this. There is typically (or always?) a fee imposed for buying and selling off-market stocks like this, though. It is not a large fee, but it discourages frequently buying and selling small numbers of the stock. It’s negligible if you plan on buying much stock and simply holding it long term.

What do you think will happen with BYD sales in 2025. And, for that matter, what do you think will happen with Toyota, Volkswagen, and Honda sales in 2025?

BYD Closer to Becoming #1 Automaker in World Than I Thought

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