Though it has faced its fair share of obstacles – mostly in the form of massive tariffs aimed at keeping it and other Chinese automakers out of certain countries – Ford EV rival BYD continues to grow its global sales by leaps and bounds. In fact, the automaker is aiming to sell four million vehicles in 2024, which would represent an 11 percent increase compared to its target from early this year, putting it quite close to Ford’s 2023 global sales of 4.4 million units, which ranked it sixth among all automakers at that time. Now, it looks like BYD may surpass Ford in terms of sales this year after all.
According to Bloomberg, BYD now has a chance of beating Ford in terms of total global sales this year following a strong start to the last portion of 2024 that saw it move a half-million vehicles in October. That result puts BYD pretty much on par with The Blue Oval in terms of year-to-date sales, particularly since it’s been averaging 1.1 million sales per quarter through the first three periods of the year.
The Chinese company already beat Ford in Q3 as well, delivering 1.13 million new vehicles – 40,000 more than The Blue Oval. “Getting to four million is a stunning milestone,” auto industry consultant Michael Dunne said of BYD’s eye-opening growth. “BYD will soon be seeing Ford in the rear-view mirror.” Ford has indeed had its eye on BYD for some time now, with CEO Jim Farley even going so far as to call the automaker’s ultra-affordable Seagull a bigger threat to the company’s business than proposed zero-emissions mandates.
The fact that BYD doesn’t currently sell its vehicles in places like the U.S. or Canada makes this rapid ascension even more notable, though there are very good reasons for that absence. The U.S. just imposed a 100 percent tariff on imported Chinese EVs in September, and Canada is following suit, which thwarted BYD’s plans of expanding into the latter country, as Ford Authority reported earlier this month. Europe also recently imposed tariffs on Chinese imports, but BYD continues to sell vehicles in that region, regardless.
Comments
Would they pass our safety/crash requirements? Looks like you get one hit and it’s done.
All the reviews I see of these are positive. Too bad they will never be sold in Canada.
You should be glad they’re not. Tens of thousands of jobs would be lost in the Canadian auto sector.
Why would an auto worker care if their paycheck came from Ford or BYD? They both carry the same value.
Get over it, it will come to Canada and SA, if GM and Ford built good vehs thfey should have no worry.