Who Sells The Most All-Electric Cars: Tesla, Volkswagen, BYD?

Many of us follow battery-electric car sales and who sells the most BEVs, as well as what is the current trend. Is Tesla still the largest BEV player?

Today, we will take a look at the sales results during the first quarter of 2022, comparing Tesla with the Volkswagen Group (including Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Skoda and SEAT) and BYD.

Tesla recently achieved another quarterly record of electric car deliveries: 310,048. That's a massive result compared to other manufacturers. Tesla is also consistently increasing its sales.

The Volkswagen Group was often seen as a company that will be able to quickly scale up battery-electric car sales of multiple brands and overtake Tesla in the BEV business. However, the company struggles with semiconductor shortages and more recently with wire harnesses supply issues.

Due to the constraints, Volkswagen Group's BEV sales are growing year-over-year slower than Tesla, and are actually lower than in the previous three quarters.

As a result, the difference between the two has expanded to over 210,000 units. Tesla managed to produce and deliver over three times more electric cars during the period, which is the highest ratio in quite some time.

BEV sales results in Q1 2022:

• Tesla: 310,048 (up 68% year-over-year)
• Volkswagen Group: 99,100 (up 65.2% year-over-year) or 32% of Tesla's result
  *including a small number of commercial BEVs
• Difference: 148,800 (up 106% from 72,129)

Tesla deliveries vs Volkswagen Group BEV sales - Q1 2022

The next company to check is China's BYD, which increases battery-electric car sales very quickly - by 271% year-over-year to 143,224 (Q1 2022).

That's significantly more than the Volkswagen Group. It's the first time since Q1 2020 (the period for which we have data) that BYD's electric car sales are higher than the Volkswagen Group's electric car sales.

BEV sales results in Q1 2022:

• Tesla: 310,048 (up 68% year-over-year)
• BYD: 143,224 (up 271% year-over-year) or 46% of Tesla's result
• Difference: 166,824 (up 14% from 146,278)

Well, if BYD does not slow down, then it might become the #2 this year. Who knows, maybe also other automotive groups will join the race?

For now, all three have high potential for growth - Tesla just opened two new plants (in Germany and in Texas), the Volkswagen Group is expected to gradually solve issues of parts supply and unlock full potential (300,000 orders for BEVs in Western Europe alone speaks for itself), while BYD targets 600,000 in 2022 (maybe more).

See also

China: Tesla Model Y Becomes Top-Selling Crossover/SUV In March And Q1 2022

US: Tesla Strengthens Its Position As Top Luxury Car Brand In Q1 2022