Inroads: How China’s BYD overtook Tesla as the global leader in electric cars

China’s BYD automaker surpassed US rival Tesla for the first time in 2024 to become the world’s leading manufacturer of electric cars, an achievement that exceeded even the expectations of the brand’s CEO Wang Chuanfu, who predicted it would outsell its fiercest competitor sometime this year. For Elon Musk, it’s a hard pill to swallow.