BYD introduced the BYD seal in Europe at the IAA in Munich. The electric sedan has a starting price of 44,900 euros ($48,479).
Arjun Kharpal | CNBC
In 2022, Tesla produced 1.37 million vehicles, less than BYD's 1.88 million. New energy vehicles include battery-powered and hybrid models.
Most of BYD's cars are sold in a lower price range than Tesla's and are available in hybrid versions. Elon Musk's car manufacturer only sells purely battery-powered cars. China accounted for about a fifth of Tesla's sales in the quarter ended Sept. 30.
BYD shares fell more than 2% in Hong Kong trading on Tuesday morning.
Companies seeking a share of China's fast-growing electric car market have flooded the market with new models. Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi last week outlined its plans to launch an electric vehicle to compete with Porsche and Tesla.
Li Auto, whose monthly deliveries have soared to record highs, will launch its first all-battery vehicle, MEGA, on March 1 and begin deliveries later this month, according to an announcement on Sunday. This is slightly later than originally forecast for deliveries in late February.
So far, the startup has had success with cars that have a fuel tank to charge the battery and extend the range. Li Auto said it delivered more than 50,000 cars in December, bringing the total to 376,030 cars in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 182%.
Xpeng launched its X9 MPV on Monday, with deliveries starting immediately.
The Chinese electric car maker said its total EV deliveries in 2023 rose 17% year-on-year to 141,601 cars, with a record 20,115 vehicles delivered in December.
Aito, Huawei's new energy vehicle brand, announced on Monday that orders for the M9 SUV have exceeded 30,000 in the seven days since its launch. Mass deliveries of the M9 are scheduled to begin at the end of February.
Aito said it delivered 94,380 cars in 2023, including 24,468 in December alone. For 2022, Aito said it had delivered more than 75,000 cars since deliveries began in March this year.
Zeekr, backed by Geely, said it began deliveries of its latest model, the 007 electric sedan, on Monday. Zeekr said its total deliveries rose 65% to 118,685 in 2023.
That total is still lower than Nio, which delivered 160,038 cars in 2023, up nearly 31% year over year. The company delivered just over 18,000 cars in December.
Among many other electric car brands in China, Nezha reported deliveries of 127,496 cars in 2023.
Aion, a spinoff of state-owned GAC Motor, said it sold more than 480,000 cars in 2023, up 77% from the previous year.
Several Chinese electric car makers, including Nio and BYD, are also pushing into markets outside of China, particularly in Europe.
According to CNBC calculations of public data, BYD's overseas sales exceeded 242,000 new energy passenger cars in 2023. The company did not disclose comparable figures for 2022.
The Chinese electronics giant announced plans to build a new production center in Hungary in December. The company said it currently sells five models in Europe and plans to launch three more for the region in the next 12 months.
“While the Chinese market is one of the pioneers in entering the electric vehicle era, we believe that offshoring (building factories in the overseas market rather than just delivering Chinese-made vehicles) is the only option for China's leading automakers “We will conquer the global market in the long run,” Joel Ying, auto analyst at Nomura China, and a team said in a Jan. 2 note.
“Considering that the company already has a bus factory in Hungary, we believe that the decision to build the first EU PV factory in Hungary will help BYD minimize the potential risks in the overseas market,” says the report.
BYD said it sold 36,095 new energy cars abroad in December, more than three times the previous year's figure.
—CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this report.