One electric-vehicle challenge Elon Musk saw coming in his rear-view mirror has just edged past him. On Wednesday, BYD clocked quarterly sales that handily beat Tesla. The next worry is that his Chinese rival will keep pulling further ahead.
BYD’s top line was neck and neck with Tesla’s in last year’s fourth quarter. But it powered ahead in the latest results, with a record 201 billion yuan ($28 billion) in revenue in the three months to the end of September, some $3 billion more than its U.S. rival’s.
BYD can’t sell personal vehicles in America, because the US government thinks American companies (where the CEO lives, not where cars are made) can’t compete with BYD.
It doesn’t matter which party is in office, they both take money to keep BYD out.