Chinese automaker BYD could soon dominate the European market and add to Tesla’s struggles to recapture the hearts of electric vehicle drivers.
Fortune reported that BYD is now poised to produce around 300,000 EVs per year at its factory in Szeged, Hungary, by 2030.
Starting next year, it estimates it will manufacture 150,000 of its all-electric sedans annually at the facility as it continues its push to firmly topple Tesla as the tastemaker of the EV realm, marketing its compact cars as perfect for narrow European streets.
Over the first five months of the year, BYD sold 55,000 cars in Europe — three times more sales than it did during the same period in 2024.
«If they keep growing at this speed, Europe should expect big disruption in the coming months,» said JATO Dynamics analyst Felipe Munoz.
BYD executive vice president Stella Li told Fortune that many underestimated her company as a potential EV powerhouse because of its small size.
«Nobody looked at us,» she said.
Back in 2011, when speaking with former Bloomberg TV anchor Betty Liu, Tesla CEO Elon Musk laughed at the idea of BYD ever being able to compete with Tesla.
In later years, he seemed to have softened his stance, demonstrating just how far the EV industry has come since Tesla first gained renown in the 2000s for successfully selling and marketing its EV to the modern consumer — inspiring other automakers to follow suit.
In turn, the market is filled with increasingly affordable options for people who want to make their next car an EV, and consumers are leaping at the opportunity to purchase a more eco-friendly vehicle that offers cost savings on energy and maintenance.
Last year, EV sales worldwide rose by more than 25%, according to the International Energy Agency.
Still, Tesla has the largest market cap among automakers by far at more than $1 trillion, and BYD clocks in fourth with a $130.8 billion market cap.
Yet BYD has begun to establish itself as a dominant force in international markets, surpassing Tesla in global sales this year, even if Musk remains bullish on his company’s ability to rise above the competition.
While Tesla has factories in Europe and China, it does most of its manufacturing in the U.S., creating thousands of jobs.
For his part, Musk has criticized the Donald Trump administration’s tariffs as a move that will have a «significant impact» on his company, undermining domestic manufacturers’ ability to compete with automakers like BYD in international markets.
For now, Tesla remains the top-selling EV in the United States despite consumer backlash to Musk’s involvement in politics and high-profile mishaps with the company’s Robotaxi rollout.
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