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Electric Vehicle Sales Race, 2011–2024
Tesla dominates, then BYD overtakes them. A $5,000 Chinese city car briefly outsells everything. Fisker rises and disappears. The EV market went from a niche experiment to the most contested space in the auto industry in 13 years.
The story
In 2011, Nissan's Leaf and GM's Volt were the only EVs worth counting. By 2021, Volkswagen Group had surged to second place and the Wuling Hongguang Mini EV — a tiny Chinese car costing about $5,000 — was selling 426,000 units a year.
By 2022, BYD overtook Tesla on total EV sales (including plug-in hybrids). By 2024, BYD was selling 4.3 million EVs annually — more than double Tesla. The most consequential shift in the global auto industry since the internal combustion engine played out in 13 years.
Sources: EV-Volumes, IEA Global EV Outlook, manufacturer annual reports. BEV + PHEV combined.