BYD surpasses Volkswagen to become the top seller in the Chinese market

China’s passenger car sales show that BYD (BYD), the largest private enterprise in 2024, has jumped to the top for the first time. BYD’s sales have surpassed Germany’s Volkswagen (VW), which has long been the top of the Chinese auto market in cooperation with Chinese state-owned enterprises.

The Chinese market has been dominated by joint ventures established by state-owned enterprises and foreign capital before, but the protagonist has finally changed. The influence of Chinese cars, which have accumulated strength with new energy vehicles such as pure electric vehicles (EV), may increase globally.

Research company MarkLines compiled the passenger car sales of various corporate groups in 2024. BYD increased by 46% from 2023 to about 3.65 million vehicles. Among the top ten companies, except BYD, the only companies that achieved sales growth were Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (up 30%) and Chery Automobile (up 74%).

The rankings of foreign-funded automakers fell collectively. Volkswagen’s sales fell by 6% to about 2.98 million vehicles, and its ranking fell to 2nd place. Sales of Japanese automakers such as Toyota and Honda also declined.