That’s it, we finally know the ranking of the car manufacturers that sell the most electric cars in the world for the third quarter of 2023. There is no big surprise, but Tesla is increasingly upset by its largest competitor of all time, the Chinese giant BYD. While Volkswagen watches the scene, almost helpless.
Every quarter, we offer you the ranking of the 3 car manufacturers that sell the most electric cars. It’s not only about satisfying your curiosity, but also about being aware of a rapidly growing market, with new players (often Chinese) who were completely unknown just a few months ago. It was perhaps through one of these rankings that you became acquainted with BYD, the Chinese electric car giant.
But it must be said that it is increasingly known in France, since it made its official entry into France during the Paris Motor Show in 2022. Since then, the Chinese manufacturer has continued to multiply the models and launches in France, with the BYD Han, Tang, Atto 3, Dolphin then the Seal and Seal U. We should therefore start to see more and more BYD electric cars in France and Europe in the months future. And this is reflected in the ranking of manufacturers as you can see in the table below.
| BYD | You’re here | Volkswagen | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st quarter 2023 | 264,647 | 422,875 | 141,000 |
| 2nd quarter 2023 | 354 163 | 466 140 | 180,600 |
| 3rd quarter 2023 | 431,603 | 435,059 | 209,900 |
| Cumulative 2023 | 1,050,413 | 1,324,074 | 531,500 |
Tesla remains leader in electric cars
As we can see, Tesla remains the leader in the electric car market, thanks to only four models, its Tesla Model 3, Model Y, Model S and Model X sold 435,059 copies. The Cybertruck should soon arrive in the United States, after several months of delay. During the third quarter of 2023, Tesla failed to break its delivery record.
In question: the restyled Tesla Model 3 which required temporarily interrupting production (and therefore sales) of the old Model 3. Which should partly prevent the American manufacturer from reaching the 2 million electric cars sold in 2023. Elon Musk is aiming for 1.8 million, which would already be a record.
BYD, number 2 which is getting dangerously close
As for BYD, the Chinese manufacturer continues its ramp-up with 431,603 electric cars delivered to its customers during the previous quarter. That’s only 3,456 cars less than Tesla! BYD was therefore on the verge of stealing Tesla’s place. But be careful, because cumulatively over the year, the difference is much higher, in favor of Tesla, with 1.05 million and 1.324 million cars delivered respectively. That’s a differential of 274,000 cars.
Volkswagen lagging behind
And in third place, we find the Volkswagen group, which peaks at only 531,000 cars delivered over the year, and 209,900 over the quarter. And all this with numerous models, including 162,100 Volkswagen ID.4 and ID.5, 90,500 Volkswagen ID.3, 77,900 Audi Q4 e-tron, 54,400 Skoda Enyaq iV, 32,300 Cupra Born and 21,800 Audi Q8 e-tron.
We therefore see that Volkswagen is completely behind. Moreover, the German group was overtaken by BYD in China, one of its main markets, after 15 years at the head of the latter. We also know that Volkswagen relies heavily on Chinese manufacturers to provide its electric cars with cutting-edge technologies.
If you want to go further, you can read the world ranking of electric car models. With many Teslas and BYDs.