AUTONEWS

Volkswagen is starting to lose market share in the Chinese market

Volkswagen loses the title of the best-selling brand on the Chinese car market in the first quarter of this year, being overtaken by the local company BYD. The German company was positioned in first place in this chapter since 2008 on this market.

BYD managed to sell 440,000 vehicles in the first quarter of this year in the Chinese market, and the Asian company in which American billionaire Warren Buffett also owns shares has big plans for the future. In the first quarter of 2023, sales of the Volkswagen brand totaled 427,247 units in China.

At group level VW reported 644,500 units sold in the first months of the year in the Chinese market. Of these, 21,500 units were models with electric propulsion, down 25.4 percent compared to the same period in 2022.

BYD overtakes VW in sales in the Chinese market...BYD, a company in which billionaire Warren Buffett owns 12 percent through an investment fund, had higher sales than VW in the first quarter of 2023. Data analyzed by Bloomberg indicates a total number of 440,000 vehicles sold by BYD in the Chinese market. In the first quarter of 2023, sales of the Volkswagen brand totaled 427,247 units in China and electric cars accounted for 6% of deliveries.

On the other hand, in the first quarter of 2023, BYD sold 550,000 cars globally, while the VW group sold 644,500 units in China alone. Globally, the German company delivered over 2 million cars during the mentioned period, and of these, 141,000 were cars with a full electric propulsion system. BYD sold a total of 1.86 million vehicles in 2022, and for this year the Chinese manufacturer aimed to deliver at least 3 million units.

In Europe, the Chinese manufacturer BYD currently offers three models with electric propulsion: the SUVs Tang and Atto 3 plus a sedan model called Han. The BYD Atto 3 has a 203 hp engine and offers a range of 420 kilometers, and the Tang SUV offers up to 516 hp and a range of 400 kilometers according to the WLTP standard in mixed mode. The Han electric sedan has an electric propulsion system with a power of over 500 HP and can run 512 kilometers on a single charge. The starting price for the BYD Atto 3 model in Europe starts from 42,000 euros.

Author: Bogdan Bârliga