Odd Lots

Understanding the Rise of Chinese EV Powerhouse BYD

The EV maker that’s selling more cars than Tesla. 

Changjiang Zhao, general manager of Denza sales division at BYD Co., speaks during an unveiling event for the BYD Denza N7 electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) in Beijing, China.

Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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In the US, Tesla remains far and away the dominant maker of electric vehicles. But on a global scale, the situation is much more competitive. Over the last few years, Chinese EV makers have massively ramped up their export capacity and one in particular — BYD — sells more total vehicles (both pure EV and hybrid) than Tesla does. On this episode, we speak with Corey Cantor, an EV analyst at BloombergNEF about the competition between these two companies, China's EV strategy more broadly, the worldwide battle over batteries, the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act and the big shifts underway in the global automotive landscape. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.