BYD keeps outselling Tesla in Europe

BYD sold nearly 50% more vehicles in the European Union than Tesla did last month, according to new data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), moving about 9,700 units versus Tesla’s 6,600 in July. Earlier country-specific data hadn’t been looking good for the American EV company.

While BYD, a Chinese company that sells both EVs and plug-in hybrids, outsold Tesla in Europe for the first time in April, Tesla’s January through July sales have outpaced BYD’s by nearly 20,000.

BYD Executive Vice President Stella Li has credited her company’s success to its wide variety of offerings relative to Tesla. Tesla, on the other hand, recently halted new orders of two of its four models available in Europe.

In Tesla’s defense, CEO Elon Musk said on the company’s last earnings call, “It’s worth noting that we do not actually yet have approval for supervised FSD [full self-driving] in Europe. So our sales in Europe, we think, will improve significantly once we are able to give customers the same experience that they have in the US.”