Chinese producer&dstro;ač electric vehicle maker BYD reported a double-digit jump in revenue in the third quarter on Wednesday, outpacing US rival Tesla for the first time.
In the period from July to September, revenue jumped 24 percent compared to the same quarter last year, to 201.1 billion yuan ($28.24 billion), according to a stock exchange report.
With this, the Chinese giant for the first time overtook the American Tesla, whose revenue in the period from July to September amounted to 25.2 billion dollars.
BYD’s net profit increased year-on-year by 11.2 percent to 11.6 billion yuan ($1.63 billion). In the first nine months, it was 18.1 percent higher than last year and amounted to 25.2 billion yuan.
However, Tesla retained the lead in global sales in the third quarter, with nearly 463,000 electric vehicles sold, compared to BYD’s slightly more than 443,000.
Both the Chinese giant and Tesla benefited from increased Chinese incentives for the purchase of new models of especially ‘green’ cars. In such conditions, car sales in China rose for the first time in six months in September, according to industry data.
BYD led the growth thanks to significant discounts on the most popular models. The good results in the third quarter primarily reflect the jump in sales of plug-in hybrids, by 75.6 percent compared to the same period last year, with 685,830 vehicles sold, thanks to new fuel-saving technology.
Growth in sales of all-electric cars slowed to 2.7 percent, with a reduced share of the Chinese market compared to competitors, according to Reuters calculations.