In local time on Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to the news that BYD’s sales exceeded Tesla’s last year, saying that the two companies are not comparable because Tesla’s positioning is an artificial intelligence + robotics company, not just a car company. German engineer and electric car enthusiast Alex Avoigt posted on the X platform: “There are four points worth noting about the huge progress made in the sales of BYD’s pure electric vehicles: 1. BYD sells low-priced pure electric vehicles in China, but not yet in Europe and North America, and it is unlikely to sell them at the same price, so Tesla is more likely to sell more pure electric vehicles in North America and Europe, especially after the delivery of the $25,000 model. 2. Tesla has the ability to activate FSD on every car delivered overnight and has a huge profit margin leverage that other car manufacturers cannot match – so Tesla will be in a leading position in terms of profit margin and profit, becoming the most profitable company. 3. Tesla currently has a huge cost competitiveness, but once FSD and Optimus Prime robots start selling, Tesla can set more attractive car prices at will, while still achieving industry-leading profit margins, selling more technically advanced cars at lower prices. 4. Getting other car manufacturers to fully switch to electric cars is an important part of Tesla’s mission, so BYD is part of Tesla’s mission and is therefore very popular.” A user named “Matℍias” responded, “In my opinion, BYD and Tesla are not comparable.” BYD is a Chinese car and battery manufacturer, it must prove its success in other continents Tesla is a core technology company, now most of their profits come from cars Tesla Energy will soon change this situation, future FSD and robots will also change this situation In other words, both are very important BYD is also providing battery support for Tesla’s Model Y short-range version in Europe, this is a good example of how two rivals cooperate Who knows, maybe BYD is a large OEM that is negotiating with Tesla for FSD authorization Their cars are also good” Another user Nicklas also joined the discussion, trying to compare BYD with Tesla, thinking that although BYD’s sales in 2023 exceeded Tesla’s, its revenue and profits are lower than Tesla’s; the number of employees is several times more than Tesla, indicating a lower level of automation than Tesla; Tesla has 8 factories globally, while BYD has 30; in terms of revenue and profit created per employee, Tesla is several times that of BYD He wrote: “I know I can’t directly compare all these numbers, but I still did These are two completely different companies BYD doesn’t even believe in autonomous driving ability in the short term Tesla is working hard to achieve this goal However, both companies are accelerating the transition to sustainable transportation, which is a good thing, so I hope more companies will try to compete with these two pure electric car manufacturers” Musk responded to this post: “Tesla is an AI/robotics company, although to many it is seen as a car company”
Last week, Musk responded to an analyst’s comparison of Tesla with Toyota by saying, “He got the frame of reference wrong, we are an AI/robotics company.” In September last year, Musk said, “Almost all of Tesla’s long-term value will come from AI and robotics, including cars and humanoid robots.”