Tesla delivered more cars than expected in the fourth quarter, although that is not enough for the Elon Musk-led company to stay ahead of global electric vehicle sales over China's BYD.
Tesla delivered 484,507 vehicles in the past three months, beating analysts' average estimate of 483,173 deliveries. BYD sold 526,409 fully electric vehicles in the quarter to become the new No. 1 EV player, mainly driven by its much wider range of cheaper models in China.
While Austin-based Tesla exceeded its goal of delivering 1.8 million vehicles for the year, the automaker fell well short of the bullish scenario Musk touted 12 months ago. After the CEO told analysts that the company could produce two million cars, a series of price cuts failed to generate enough demand to support that amount of production.
Tesla shares rose 102% last year, recovering from a record loss in 2022 linked to Musk's acquisition of Twitter.
The change in electric vehicle sales rankings reflects China's growing influence in the global auto industry. Having overtaken the United States, South Korea, and Germany in recent years, China may overtake Japan as the world's largest exporter of passenger cars by 2023.
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