When I took delivery of my first Model S in 2015, Tesla was the hunter, taking chunks of market share from the BMW 5 Series and the Audi A6. The Germans reacted with stunned disbelief, then panic. Today it is Tesla that finds itself in the crosshairs, pursued by the feisty new kid on the block, BYD, backed by an investment from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
This year, BYD is on track to sell five million vehicles, about three times more than Tesla.
For most Americans, BYD might evoke feelings of a distant planet like Jupiter or Uranus. The name seems vaguely familiar, for very different reasons. BYD also makes surgical masks and ramped up production dramatically during the pandemic. Its masks are still widely available. As for the BYD cars, we’ve likely seen some images but never experienced a BYD vehicle firsthand. How good can this Chinese car company really be, Joe America wonders, when we do not see BYDs on the streets of New York or Los Angeles?
Spoiler alert: Very good. And getting better fast.
