Elon Musk’s Tesla looks set to regain its crown as the world’s biggest electric carmaker as BYD sales tumble

Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

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It looks like Tesla is about to regain its title as the world’s top electric car maker.China’s BYD reported on Monday that sales plummeted more than 40% for the first three months of 2024.Elon Musk’s company is set to reveal its own quarterly delivery numbers on Wednesday.

It’s been a nightmarish start to 2024 for Tesla — but the car maker might finally be about to get some good news.

Analysts expect Elon Musk‘s company to reclaim its title as the world’s top EV seller when it reports delivery numbers on Wednesday — just three months after losing the top spot to BYD.

The Chinese company said in a Shenzhen Stock Exchange filing on Monday that it sold about 300,000 EVs in the first three months of 2024. That’s a 43% decline compared with the final three months of last year for BYD.

Meanwhile, Tesla is expected to report that it delivered 458,500 vehicles in the quarter to March 31, according to a poll of analysts by Visible Alpha.

That would represent a 5% drop from the final quarter of 2023, but still be enough to put the Texas-based firm clear of BYD once again.

Both companies have struggled this year amid signs that drivers are souring on electric cars and instead choosing to opt for cheaper hybrids.

Tesla’s stock price is down about 30% this year in a sell-off that’s reduced its value by some $230 billion. The slide has caused some to question whether Musk’s company deserves its spot in the “Magnificent Seven” group of mega-cap tech stocks.

Wells Fargo, Bernstein, and Wedbush Securities have all slashed their price targets for the EV maker in recent weeks. A drop in deliveries would cap a “nightmare quarter for Tesla,” said Wedbush analysts in a research note last week.

BYD’s Hong Kong-listed shares have slipped 6% in 2024, dragged down by the Warren Buffett-backed company missing its annual profit targets.

Investors are also worried that the company could eventually lose market share to rivals including Xiaomi, which just launched its first EV.