BYD surpasses Honda and Nissan to become the seventh largest car company in the world

In the second quarter of this year, BYD’s global sales surpassed Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co., becoming the world’s seventh-largest automaker, according to sales data from research firm MarkLines and car companies, mainly due to market interest in its affordable electric vehicles. Strong demand.

Data show that from April to June this year, BYD’s global new car sales increased by 40% year-on-year to 980,000 units, even as most major automakers, including Toyota Motor and Volkswagen Group, experienced a decline in sales. , this is largely due to the growth of its overseas sales. BYD’s overseas sales reached 105,000 vehicles in the second quarter, a year-on-year increase of nearly twice.

In the second quarter of last year, BYD ranked 10th in the world with sales of 700,000 vehicles. Since then, BYD has outsold Nissan Motor Co and Suzuki Motor Corp, and surpassed Honda Motor Co for the first time in the most recent quarter.

The only Japanese automaker currently selling more than BYD is Toyota.
Toyota led the global automaker sales rankings with sales of 2.63 million vehicles in the second quarter. The “Big Three” in the United States are also still in the lead, but BYD is quickly catching up with Ford.

In addition to BYD’s rise in rankings, Chinese automakers Geely and Chery Automobile also ranked among the top 20 in the global sales list in the second quarter of this year.

In China, the world’s largest auto market, BYD’s affordable electric vehicles are gaining momentum, with sales in June rising 35% year-on-year. In contrast, Japanese automakers, which have an advantage in gasoline-powered vehicles, have lagged behind. In June this year, Honda’s sales in China fell by 40%, and the company plans to reduce its production capacity in China by about 30%.

Even in Thailand, where Japanese companies account for about 80% of the market share, Japanese car companies are cutting production capacity, Suzuki Motor is suspending production, and Honda Motor is cutting production capacity in half.

In the first half of this year, China further led Japan in automobile exports. Among them, Chinese automakers exported more than 2.79 million vehicles overseas, a year-on-year increase of 31%. During the same period, Japanese auto exports fell 0.3% year-on-year to less than 2.02 million vehicles.

For lagging Japanese car companies, the North American market is becoming increasingly important. Chinese electric carmakers currently have little sway in the North American market due to high tariffs, while hybrids from Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co are popular, but will this make up for declining sales by Japanese automakers in China and other markets? The impact remains to be seen.