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According to Wilson terminal data, BYD sold a total of 440800 vehicles in the first quarter of 2023, including 183300 in March, with a market share of 10.38%. In second place is the Volkswagen brand, which sold 427300 vehicles in the first quarter, including 157600 in March, with a market share of 10.07%. In addition, the Toyota brand ranked third, with cumulative sales of 330200 vehicles in the first quarter of 2023, including 127100 in March, with a market share of 7.78 per cent.

It is the first time in the history of BYD that BYD overtook Volkswagen to become the top selling brand in China, and it is also the first time that a Chinese brand has monopolized the Chinese market for nearly 40 years.

In 2003, BYD acquired Qinchuan Automobile in Xi'an, becoming another private carmaker after Geely and Chery. At that time, China's automobile market was in a period of rapid development, but it was also monopolized by foreign brands.

It is not easy for private car companies to counterattack, not only without technology and talent, but also facing the situation of being "besieged and suppressed" by joint venture brands. Even Geely and Chery, which entered the game earlier, had to keep their heads down and carry the pressure to "survive in the gap", while BYD, which announced that it was building cars at that time, had no lofty ideals and only took a fancy to the growth potential of cars. Later, BYD took a fancy to Toyota Corolla models, from dismantling, learning, imitating and assembling. Let's get started. In 2005, BYD's first model, the F3, went offline. With its low price and exquisite imitation, the F3 won the attention of many consumers.

The F3 has become the dominant model of the BYD fuel car era, but it is likely to be the only fuel car that BYD has ever really sold. After tasting the benefits of F3, BYD successively launched F0, F3R, G3, L3, F6, M6 and other models, with sales of 448000 vehicles in 2009, ranking first in independent brand sales, of which F3 sales alone reached 291000.

However, BYD's fuel car sales have been on the decline since 2010. Since the launch of the first dynasty series, Qin, in 2013, most of BYD's models have adopted the model of both fuel and new energy vehicles, but sales of fuel vehicles are generally mediocre. In 2018, BYD Song MAX welcomed the best part of the monthly sales of more than 10,000, but it did not last long, falling to less than 10,000 by the end of 2018. In November 2019, BYD launched a Qin fuel version priced between 6.49 yuan and 81900 yuan, but sales have been flat ever since, except for strong attention when it went public. For BYD, the related successful fuel car may be Song Pro, which went on sale in July 2019, which sold more than 10,000 cars in the past few months and became the only BYD model with annual sales exceeding 100000 in 2020. In September 2020, BYD launched the Song PLUS, the last model launched before BYD stopped producing fuel cars, but sales were still poor. It can be said that in the era of fuel cars, BYD has come to an end.

In fact, it is not only BYD, in fact, most of the domestic independent brand fuel vehicle sales are very ordinary. In the era of fuel vehicles, foreign brands' reserves of automotive technology are obviously richer than Chinese brands, including engines, gearboxes and chassis lights, which is the most direct reason why Chinese brands have been unable to surpass joint venture brands for a long time.

On April 3, 2022, BYD announced that it would stop production of fuel-fueled vehicles and focus on pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in the future. For BYD, stopping production of fuel vehicles is not only in line with the global trend of automobile development, but also the necessity of the transformation of BYD cars. Unlike traditional automakers such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi, before the announcement of the suspension of fuel vehicles, the proportion of BYD fuel vehicle sales is declining, while for other traditional automakers, fuel vehicles are the main source of sales. Abandoning fuel vehicles means overturning all the previously accumulated technology, which takes not only a lot of time, but also a lot of financial resources, which is the main reason why it is difficult for traditional automakers to give up fuel vehicles.

After the suspension of production of fuel vehicles, more focus on the development of new energy vehicles also confirmed BYD's decision, sales repeatedly hit record highs. Data show that BYD sold 1.805 million narrow passenger cars in 2022, an increase of 149.4% over the same period last year, while FAW-Volkswagen sold 1.779 million vehicles in 2022, roughly the same as in 2021.

The deeper significance of BYD's overtaking of Volkswagen is that Chinese brands dominated by BYD are beginning to disintegrate the position of foreign brands in the Chinese market, and new energy car manufacturers dominated by BYD are promoting drastic changes in the auto industry. Fundamentally speaking, BYD and Volkswagen represent two major camps in the automobile industry. The former regards itself as the leader of new energy vehicles, while the latter represents the leading enterprises of traditional cars, with traditional fuel vehicles accounting for more than 90% of total sales. its sales of new energy vehicles are still difficult to change the overall operating conditions of the enterprise.

Of course, at this stage, the main source of sales in China's automobile market is still fuel vehicles, and it is unlikely that new energy vehicles will completely subvert traditional fuel vehicles, but new energy vehicles are growing at an alarming rate. it shows that the new energy vehicle revolution is promoting the upheaval in the automobile industry, which may be difficult to achieve in the short term, but the long-term goal remains unchanged. Why is it an upheaval in the automobile industry? Because the surge in sales of new energy vehicles affects not only traditional automakers, but also corresponding parts suppliers, when the automobile industry is transformed, companies that layout smart driving, intelligent cockpit, lidar and other racing tracks will have more chances to survive.

Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD, said at the 2022 results conference that the goal is to become the largest carmaker in China by the end of this year. Wang Chuanfu said that BYD's sales target this year is to start with 3 million vehicles and strive to double to 3.6 million. If this can be achieved, BYD will also become one of the top 10 automakers in the world this year.

According to the plan, in addition to Qin PLUS, Han EV and Tang DM-i, BYD Dynasty will launch all-Singapore Pro and a new MPV model this year, while Ocean net will continue to add frigates 05, destroyers 07, seagulls and sea lions, and Teng Teng, F brand, and look up will also focus on landing new cars, of which Tengli will launch two SUV models, including Tencent N7 and Teng Teng N8.

In addition, BYD will continue to speed up the process of using cars to go to sea. According to incomplete statistics, BYD passenger car layout markets include Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Australia, Japan, Thailand, India, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Colombia, Costa Rica and other 14 countries and regions.

In the future, if the joint venture brand wants to become the top seller of passenger cars in China, I am afraid it will never be seen again. Just imagine, if BYD's annual sales reach 3 million in 2023, it will affect not only joint venture brands in the Chinese market, but also international carmakers far across the world.

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