BYD Co has reported higher quarterly revenue than Tesla Inc for the first time as the duo grapple for the spot as the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) company.
Revenue jumped 24% to 201.1 billion yuan ($28.2 billion) over the three months to September, BYD reported on Wednesday.
This meant the Chinese firm’s revenue had soared past Tesla’s over the period after Elon Musk’s company reported the figure up 8% at $25.2 billion last week.
BYD’s profitability took a blow though as the firm continued to face a domestic price war, with gross margins narrowing from 22.1% to 21.9% year over year.
Net income increased by 11.5% to 11.6 billion yuan, as BYD sold 1.1 million cars over the three months.
This compared to 462,890 deliveries by Tesla but included plug-in hybrids which are not produced by the US firm.
Both BYD and Tesla have benefitted from old-for-new schemes to stimulate EV sales in China in recent months, with the majority of the former’s revenue coming domestically.
BYD has made efforts to boost sales overseas in the meantime, despite the threat of heightened tariffs in the likes of Europe, with some 94,477 cars being sold outside of China over the quarter, marking a 32.6% increase.