BYD sales eclipse Tesla's for first time as EV giants face off

HONG KONG - BYD notched up another win over Tesla, reporting quarterly revenue beating that of Mr. Elon Musk's carmaker for the first time since the pair went head-to-head in global electric vehicle (EV) sales.

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Revenue for China's best-selling carmaker soared 24 per cent to 201.1 billion yuan (S$37.3 billion) for the three months ended September, falling short of estimates but exceeding Tesla's US$25.2 billion (S$33.3 billion) in sales for the same period.

Net income increased 11.5 per cent to a record 11.6 billion yuan, beating estimates, as BYD sold an unprecedented 1.12 million electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles and generated a gross margin of 21.9 per cent.

Its profit, however, is still overshadowed by the US$2.2 billion Tesla earned.

In the first nine months, BYD had net income of 25.2 billion yuan on revenue of 502.3 billion yuan.