BYD the ‘Carmaker Extraordinaire’ is overtaking Tesla – The Economist

0

To get a sense of why Toyoda Akio announced on January 26th that he would hand over the keys to the world’s biggest carmaker to Sato Koji, his number two, watch the surreal video from 2021 of the two of them driving Toyota’s first Lexus electric vehicle (ev). Mr Toyoda is at the wheel. At first, it is clear that he is a bit of an ev sceptic: he notes that the car feels heavy to drive. Then he puts his foot to the floor, and as the speed picks up, he whoops with joy like an overexcited Top Gun pilot. It is cringeworthy—but pertinent. Toyota is seen by many as an ev laggard.

In announcing his decision to vacate his position to Mr Sato, who is 13 years younger, the chairman-designate made clear it was time for a new generation to speed up the move into the electric era.

Much of the media commentary surrounding Mr Toyoda’s move casts it as a response to Tesla. That is too Western-centric. Tesla may be the world’s biggest ev producer and, according to Elon Musk, its boss, so far ahead of the competition that he can not see the number two with a telescope. Yet it ignores a Chinese newcomer that, for all Mr Musk’s bombast, Toyota no doubt takes as seriously as it does Tesla. It is byd, which this year may overtake Tesla as the biggest global seller of pure evs (not including hybrids, which it also makes).

BYD is Toyota’s ev partner in China as well as a rising competitor globally. More important, it emulates many of the traits that for decades have made Toyota the world’s most successful car company.

Advertisement

Read full story on href=”https://www.economist.com/business/2023/02/02/chinas-byd-is-overtaking-tesla-as-the-carmaker-extraordinaire?utm_medium=social-media.content.np&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=editorial-social&utm_content=discovery.content”>Here

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments