BYD Became 2nd Best Selling Automaker in World in November! – CleanTechnica

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

---

We’ve written about BYD’s rapid rise in sales several times this year, and I think it may well be the story of the year. Earlier this year, I wrote about the possibility BYD could climb up the sales ladder and become the best selling automaker in the world. A week later, I had to report that it was much closer to that target than I’d realized. Even diving into those numbers and that story at different points in the year, I was happily surprised by reporting a reader just sent along that BYD was seemingly the 2nd best selling automaker in the world in November already.

According to reporting out of China, BYD passed up Volkswagen in November and only trailed Toyota in global auto sales. “The rankings show that Toyota was the world’s top automaker in November, with sales of 667,900 vehicles. BYD sold 417,000 vehicles, surpassing Volkswagen and ranking second in global auto sales. Volkswagen of Germany ranked third on the list, with global sales of 401,100 vehicles.

Looking at January through November, BYD was already 4th, and just barely behind Ford. So, I think we can expect that BYD could be 3rd in the full year of 2024.

“In the brand sales list from January to November, the top three are Toyota, Volkswagen, and Ford, with sales of 7.6919 million, 4.4309 million, and 3.3949 million respectively. Among Chinese automakers, BYD’s cumulative sales volume was 3.3601 million vehicles, ranking fourth in the world; Geely Auto’s sales volume was 992,800 vehicles, ranking 18th.”

It’s truly stunning how fast BYD has risen up the sales rankings, and where it stands today. The 100% plugin vehicle automaker still has a ways to go to catch Toyota, but it seems inevitable it will do so. Funny enough, BYD is supplying the core of Toyota’s EV offerings in China. Toyota simply can’t compete on its own at the moment in the world’s biggest auto market, which now sees more than 50% of new car sales having a plug.

As much as 2024 was the year of BYD’s rapid rise up the charts, I do think 2025 will be even bigger. The company has just started exports to a bunch of countries, and it seems like it has by far the best crew of engineers and most effective R&D teams in the auto industry.