--- title: The Lesson From BYD's EV Takeover: Don't Discount China description: The significance of the rise in the Chinese auto industry as part and parcel of the energy transition is hard to understate. canonical: https://time.com/6554994/china-byd-ev-takeover/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-01-12T16:55:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T16:57:04.193Z article:section: Climate og:title: The Lesson From BYD's EV Takeover: Don't Discount China og:description: The significance of the rise in Chinese EVs as part of the energy transition is hard to understate. og:url: https://time.com/6554994/china-byd-ev-takeover/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44566b0fba54d03b/698a43ce86f68eee406f3219/BYD-Tesla.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: British Motor Show 2023 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Lesson From BYD's EV Takeover: Don't Discount China twitter:description: The significance of the rise in Chinese EVs as part of the energy transition is hard to understate. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44566b0fba54d03b/698a43ce86f68eee406f3219/BYD-Tesla.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Lesson From BYD's EV Takeover: Don't Discount China > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=2eab6a68-dcb3-4cdd-b1bb-15bae5f89c63&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1)  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jan 12, 2024 4:55 PM UTC  A BYD car is seen on a display stand on the first day of the British Motor Show at Farnborough International Exhibition Centre last year. A BYD car is seen on a display stand on the first day of the British Motor Show at Farnborough International Exhibition Centre last year. Leon Neal/Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Jan 12, 2024 4:55 PM UTC (_To get this story in your inbox, subscribe to the TIME CO2 Leadership Report newsletter_ [_here_](https://www.time.com/co2-newsletter)_._) Here in the U.S., we hear a lot about how legacy automakers are racing to catch up to Tesla and capture a piece of the growing electric vehicle market. Tesla has a head start, but GM, Ford, and Stellantis have poured billions into their respective efforts to catch up. In the global race, however, there is another, perhaps more significant, competitor: Chinese-made EVs. Last quarter, [Chinese automaker BYD](https://time.com/collection/time100-companies-2023/6284873/byd-titan/) surpassed Tesla as the world’s biggest producer of EVs. And a handful of other Chinese EV makers are planning to rapidly expand in the European market with much cheaper offerings than their European and American competitors. If you look closely, you yourself may have already encountered one. Last year in Mexico City, I was surprised to have a BYD vehicle show when I called an Uber. And BYD electric buses have been driving around the U.S. for years. The significance of the rise in the Chinese auto industry as [part and parcel of the energy transition](https://time.com/6295941/us-china-climate-cooperation-challenge/) is hard to understate. Building cars and trucks occupies an important role in American and European economies—and selling them abroad represents a significant export. The value of U.S. car exports totals about [$55 billion](https://oec.world/en/profile/bilateral-product/cars/reporter/usa). The figure is even higher in the European Union: around [$174 billion](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20230629-1) in 2022 at today’s exchange rate. As EVs become a more popular choice, Chinese automakers are bound to increase their market share and chip away at the value of western exports, especially in emerging markets where consumers will need cheaper options. This isn’t just a macroeconomic and geopolitical question. At a company by company level, automakers see the threat. “We see the Chinese as the main competitor, not GM or [Toyota](https://time.com/collection/time-co2-futures/6341071/toyota-slow-ev-transition/),” [said](https://www.cnbc.com/2023/05/25/ford-ceo-farley-says-chinese-automakers-like-byd-are-biggest-ev-rivals.html) Ford CEO Jim Farley last year. Chinese electric vehicles are on the rise in part because of strategic decisions made more than a decade ago—both within companies and at the national level—to develop the capacity to manufacture clean technology. In 2009, in the wake of the global financial crisis, China launched a number of subsidy programs to advance clean technology, including electric vehicles. The U.S. also launched investment programs to advance clean energy around that time, but China’s were bigger and lasted longer. Estimates vary, but [various](https://www.ft.com/content/6d2ed4d3-c6d3-4dbd-8566-3b0df9e9c5c6) [analyses](https://chinadialogue.net/en/business/life-after-subsidies-for-chinas-evs/#:~:text=More%20than%20200%20billion%20yuan,support%20and%20subsidies%20have%20declined.) agree that the total value of the Chinese government’s EV subsidies between 2009 and 2022 (the year the U.S. passed the Inflation Reduction Act) measured in the tens of billions of dollars, if not more. That investment has put Chinese clean technology companies in a place to internationalize. Indeed, today Chinese companies have also taken a lead in the manufacturing of a range of clean energy technologies, from solar panels to lithium-ion batteries, leaving American companies behind. There is a lesson here for companies in other sectors beyond energy and automotive: ignore the energy transition at your own risk. Demand for clean technologies is poised to shape a range of products and services, and first movers will be rewarded. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6554994/china-byd-ev-takeover/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6554994/china-byd-ev-takeover/"},"headline":"The Lesson From BYD's EV Takeover: Don't Discount China","datePublished":"2024-01-12T16:55:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T16:57:04.193Z","description":"The significance of the rise in the Chinese auto industry as part and parcel of the energy transition is hard to understate.","url":"https://time.com/6554994/china-byd-ev-takeover/","keywords":["Leadership Report","climate change","healthscienceclimate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44566b0fba54d03b/698a43ce86f68eee406f3219/BYD-Tesla.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Climate","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt44566b0fba54d03b/698a43ce86f68eee406f3219/BYD-Tesla.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"British Motor Show 2023","caption":"British Motor Show 2023","creditText":"Leon Neal/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/climate/","name":"Climate"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/co2-leadership-report/","name":"Leadership Report"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6554994/china-byd-ev-takeover/","name":"The Lesson From BYD's EV Takeover: Don't Discount China"}}]}] ```