NOS News•
More and more Europeans are opting for a Chinese electric car. That is at the expense of the American Tesla. Especially the Chinese car brand Build Your Dreams, for short BYD, is working on a strong advance in the European Union and Great Britain.
This is according to figures from the European car industry organization ACEA. It states that BYD sold just under 9700 cars in the EU in July. That is more than three times as much as last year in the same period. The market share thus increased from 0.4 percent to 1.1 percent.
The sale of Tesla, on the other hand, decreases month by month.
Shrink
The American car manufacturer sold more than 11000 cars in the EU in July last year. In July this year there were only 6600. With that, the market share of Tesla almost halved, from 1.3 percent to 0.7 percent.
BYD previously caught up with Tesla as the largest seller of electric cars worldwide. The company of Elon Musk has been struggling with declining sales for some time. Compared to the first six months from 2024, the sale of Tesla’s in the EU fell by more than 40 percent in the past six months.
In Great Britain, the American brand resulted in more than thirty percent.
Trump adviser
The fall in sales in Europe seems to be partly caused by the role that Musk had in the Donald Trump election campaign and the role he played as an adviser to the Trump government.
The popularity of BYD is also the result of the relatively low price and the fact that the image made in China is on the rise. Where until a few years ago it was looked at Tesla for major innovations, the view is now aimed at China.
In the first half of this year, the Chinese car manufacturer sold more than 58,000 cars in the EU, while in the first half of last year this was only more than 16,000 cars. That is more than three and a half times as much in a year. In Great Britain, the increase is even greater. There the brand managed to sell almost four times as many cars in a year.
The total number of new cars in the European Union amounted to nearly 915,000 in July. That is an increase of more than seven percent compared to a year ago. More than fifteen percent of these cars were completely electric.
