2024 was a big year for Chinese automaker BYDiBYDBYD Auto is a Chinese carmaker that became the world’s leading EV manufacturer in 2023, competing with Tesla for market share and global attention.READ MORE. The company secured its position as the biggest electrified-car maker in the world. It made waves for earning more revenue than Tesla for the first time in the third quarter of the year, and delivered more fully electric vehicles than Tesla for the first time in the fourth quarter.
BYD is particularly competitive with Tesla in non-Western countries, where Tesla sometimes has a more limited footprint and where the Chinese giant undercuts its American competitor on price. A new Rest of World analysis of prices for the companies’ lowest-cost vehicles looks at 10 non-Western countries and regions where both officially sell their vehicles, and where they offer prices up-front on their websites: Mexico, Chile, the United Arab Emirates, mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. In Singapore, the price of the BYD Dolphin includes the cost of a certificate of entitlement, a government-mandated license that allows one to own and use a car for 10 years. Tesla’s prices don’t include the cost of the certificate, and Rest of World has adjusted the price to reflect it.
BYD’s most affordable model varies by locale — it is either the Seagull (also known as the Dolphin Mini in some markets), the Dolphin, or the Atto 3 — while Tesla’s lowest-cost offering in all 10 countries is the Model 3. Rest of World compared prices as of February 27, 2025, and converted them to U.S. dollars to make comparisons.
Tesla’s Model 3 is more premium than BYD’s cheapest offerings, George Whitcombe, an analyst at EV intelligence firm Rho Motion, told Rest of World. (The BYD Seal is considered the most similar to the Tesla Model 3 in terms of class and performance.) For years, Tesla has promised and failed to make a low-cost, entry-level EV. On an October 2024 earnings call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company is on track to make affordable models available in the first half of 2025. Meanwhile, buyers around the world looking for affordable EVs have been turning to Chinese manufacturers like BYD.
BYD is reportedly seeking to be more competitive in China by asking its suppliers to reduce prices, while it also looks to set up more factories outside of its home base. Doing so would reduce export costs, and potentially BYD’s global prices. “Being able to compete on cost is a huge thing in the Chinese EV market,” said Whitcombe. “And then, as BYD expands globally, the knock-on effect is that the vehicles are able to be produced cheaply.”
Being able to compete on cost is a huge thing in the Chinese EV market.
The prices for Tesla cars included in Rest of World’s analysis come from the website of the company, which sells directly to consumers. BYD, meanwhile, partners with local distributors and dealerships to sell its cars in regions like Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia — a cost-efficient option that allows the company to tap into a distributor’s existing sales infrastructure. The prices listed on BYD’s website for the 10 countries and regions used in this analysis are “suggested retail costs” that may vary on the ground.
Singapore is the only country Rest of World measured where there’s little difference in price between Tesla’s Model 3 and BYD’s Dolphin. It’s very expensive to own any car in Singapore because of the country’s requirement for a certificate of entitlement. Despite the similarity in price between its cheapest model and that of Tesla, BYD was the best-selling car brand in Singapore last year.
After Singapore, Japan sees the smallest difference in price between the two carmakers, but Tesla’s Model 3 is still nearly $12,000 more expensive than BYD’s Dolphin. In Thailand, Tesla’s offering is more expensive than that of BYD by the widest margin — the Model 3 costs over $30,000 more than the Dolphin.
Linh Pham for Rest of World
The most costly component of an electric vehicle is the battery.
One factor in BYD’s favor is that its most affordable cars, especially the Seagull and the Dolphin, are smaller than Tesla’s Model 3. This allows BYD to use smaller and cheaper batteries, said Whitcombe. The battery is the most expensive part of an electric vehicle.
BYD does not sell cars in the U.S., which imposed a 100% tariff on Chinese EVs in September 2024. Three of the 10 countries and regions in Rest of World’s analysis have also imposed tariffs on Chinese EVs, according to the Market Access Map from the International Trade Centre, a joint agency between the World Trade Organization and the United Nations: the UAE at 5%, Chile at 6%, and South Korea, where BYD just launched in January, at 8%.
Tesla is primarily focused on sales in the U.S. and Europe. The company doesn’t sell in any African or South Asian country, and only sells in two Latin American countries: Mexico and Chile. BYD, on the other hand, has expanded in several markets outside of Europe, particularly in Latin America and Southeast Asia, according to Whitcombe. Rho Motion found that around 60% of the EVs sold in Brazil last year were BYD models, he said.
“They’re really looking to take hold of markets where other electric vehicle manufacturers are not yet expanding into — that seems to be their top priority,” said Whitcombe.
BYD is ramping up production outside China, where the cost of making EVs is relatively low. Whitcombe said he expects the company to have another big year in 2025 and that he is watching to see whether its global expansion will have a long-term impact on prices. “As production ramps up and volumes ramp up, it could be really interesting when BYD has a number of facilities globally where they can produce EVs at a much cheaper price than anyone else,” he said.