Tesla competitor overtakes Elon Musk's company in revenue after unveiling groundbreaking feature
There's more drama for Tesla, as the electric vehicle brand has just had its revenue surpassed by an unlikely competitor. While Tesla CEO Elon Musk remains committed to powering forward as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, there are growing complaints about this position of power within the government and his role as the 'face' of the electric vehicle brand.
With Elon Musk's DOGE making sweeping cuts to the federal spend and gutting whole departments, there have been vocal protests, damage to Teslas and chargers, and even shots fired at dealerships.
Despite President Donald Trump turning the front of the White House into his own Tesla dealership, that hasn't stopped stocks from taking a major hit in recent months.
In contrast, BYD has just revealed its financials and confirmed that not only has it been selling more cars than Tesla, but it made $170 billion in revenue in 2024. This leapfrogs analyst predictions that Tesla made $155.5 billion in the same period.
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BYD has more reason to celebrate, with it reporting a 73% soar in Q4 profits - totalling $3.3 billion. In general, BYD's Hong Kong-listed shares have climbed 50% since the start of 2025 and hit a record high in March.
As reported by the Australian Broadcast Corporation, the Chinese automobile maker is destined to dominate the EV industry. Its overseas sales skyrocketed by 72% in 2024 and now account for 10% of its overall sales outside of China. Part of this push involved plans to open a third European plant, with this one scheduled to find a new home in Germany.
If that wasn't enough, it's thought the unveiling of a new super-charging feature could leave Tesla in the dust.
The financials mention this new charging tech that can apparently fully power an EV with enough range to travel 400 kilometers in record time. BYD claims it can achieve this in just five minutes via the Super e-Platform and its peak charging speeds of 1,000 kilowatts.
If achievable, this would be up to twice as quick as Tesla's superchargers that are currently the fastest on the market.
According to Griffith University's Graeme Hughes, Tesla's loss is BYD's gain: "Elon Musk's star power had originally helped with Tesla sales. The UK market alone has dropped 45 per cent in the last month, people are concerned not only by what [Elon Musk] is doing but what [his actions] means about them."
Even if Tesla has been taking its foot off the gas, Hughes admits that things have been moving quicker than expected: "The evolution has happened quite rapidly so they've been investing a significant amount of money back into their platforms.
"It's [EVs] becoming a robust ecosystem, we have substantial players in the market. Both historical gasoline players and the new evolution of the Teslas and the BYDs. We're going to see further growth in this space over the next 10 years in particular."
BYD seems equally confident for the future, with founder Wang Chuanfu saying the Super e-Platform has been developed to ease charging anxiety: "We have been pursuing a goal to make the charging time of electric vehicles as short as the refuelling time of petrol vehicles."
The new tech will only be available on two BYD models that will be sold from April, while 4,000 chargers will be rolled out across China. Previously, BYD owners have had to use third-party chargers to give their vehicles juice.
Seth Goldstein, chief financial analyst at Morningstar, warned that others should be taking note of BYD, concluding: "Tesla and BYD competitors should either be working on their own solution to offer a charge below 10 minutes or look to license the technology from BYD."