Chinese EV giant BYD Co Ltd. BYDDY BYDDF said on Sunday that the company sold 506,804 new energy passenger vehicles in November, marking a jump of nearly 68% from last year, thanks to a major jump in plug-in hybrid passenger vehicle sales.

What Happened: Pure passenger EV (battery electric vehicle) sales of the Chinese player rose to 198,065 in November, marking a rise of 16.4% from the corresponding month of last year.

Plug-in hybrid passenger vehicle sales in the period rose 133% to 305,938 units.

The company also sold 2,801 commercial vehicles in November, including 449 buses.

Why It Matters: BYD is the biggest rival to American EV giant Tesla Inc. TSLA. The company took over Tesla as the world’s largest BEV seller in the fourth quarter of 2023. However, Tesla took back the crown in the first quarter of 2024 and has been holding on to it since.

For the third quarter between July and September, BYD’s operating revenue rose 24% to 201.12 billion yuan ($28.25 billion), the company said in a filing.

Tesla, meanwhile, reported a total revenue of only $25.18 billion in the same quarter, making it the first time since 2022 that BYD has trumped Elon Musk’s EV giant in quarterly revenue. BYD stopped making combustion engine vehicles in March 2022 to focus on electric vehicles.

Despite reporting higher revenue than Tesla in the third quarter, BYD’s net profit continued to trail behind Tesla’s net income of $2.167 billion. The company reported a diluted earnings per share of 4 yuan (56 cents) for the quarter, lower than Tesla’s adjusted earnings per share of 72 cents. Tesla, however, makes only battery electric vehicles, unlike BYD which also manufactures plug-in hybrids.

BYD Executive Vice President He Zhiqi said on Weibo in November that the company hired over 200,000 people from August to October for car and components manufacturing and increased production by nearly 200,000 vehicles.

In November alone, the company made 540,588 new energy vehicles as compared to 316,510 in the corresponding month of 2023.

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