By Michael Elkins
The latest market value rankings for automakers released Tuesday showed that Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) continues to rank first in total value with a $740.58 billion market cap, followed by Toyota (NYSE:TM). However, the biggest change comes as Chinese electric vehicle company, BYD (OTC:BYDDY) overtakes Volkswagen (OTC:VWAGY) to claim the third spot on the list with a total market value of $127.23 billion.
According to the ranking, the fourth to tenth places are Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz (OTC:DDAIF), BMW (BIT:BMW), General Motors (NYSE:GM), Ford (NYSE:F), Stellantis (NYSE:STLA) and Honda (NYSE:HMC).
On April 3, BYD announced that it would stop selling fuel-powered vehicles, focusing on pure electric and plug-in hybrid powertrain vehicles, becoming the first traditional automobile manufacturer in the world to make this decision.
In terms of sales volume, BYD sold 114,183 vehicles in May this year, up 152.8% year-on-year. The hybrid and pure electric vehicles helped BYD’s sales volume achieve rapid growth since last year. Its minimum monthly sales volume in 2021 was only over 20,000 units, and one year later, BYD’s monthly sales volume has approached 120,000 units.
Currently, BYD is the only Chinese automaker with a spot in the top ten largest automakers in the world by market value. While the production of automobiles has played a huge part in the rise of BYD’s market value and share price, BYD also has other ventures such as its mobile phone components and assembly, and photovoltaic and rechargeable units.