Tesla Gets a $94 Billion Reality Check as EV Winter Sets In::Tesla Inc. had a blockbuster 2023, as its shares more than doubled in 12 months. But 2024 is starting on a different note, with Elon Musk’s electric vehicle maker off to its worst start to any year — ever.
“EV winter” is a silly framing. Many Chinese EV companies are on a roll, with BYD just surpassing Tesla in EV shipments in the last quarter. EVs are now mainstream in China and the car markets in other countries won’t be far behind. Obviously, Tesla faces more challenges from the fact that it no longer has the market to itself, but competition is a good thing.
BYD has rode Teslas coattails for years. EVs in China didn’t take off until Tesla built a Gigafactory to supply their batteries.
The Chinese car market is dead right now, BYD and other EV makers are dumping their EVs on the global market at a steep discount (Subsidized hmmm by the state) to stay afloat. They’ve targeted their higher end EV products on the EU market because they don’t have protections in place like the US. The EU is going to stop this and well see their numbers drop.
BYD doesn’t rely on Tesla to supply their batteries. It’s the other way round: BYD started out as a battery company, and Tesla relies on their batteries in Shanghai, Germany, and other factories. Tesla originally used batteries from CATL, another Chinese company, but started switching to BYD a few years ago.