If there’s a company out there that’s “the next Tesla,” it probably speaks Chinese. That’s what we concluded following our due diligence trip to mainland China during which we attempt to understand companies like NIO and Xpeng. In the past decade, China has gone from copying the leader to establishing their own global automotive leadership position, particularly for electric vehicles. Last year alone, China’s electric vehicle sales absolutely soared with BYD Company (1211.HK) now overtaking Tesla as the world’s largest producer of electric vehicles by number of vehicles produced.
Six of the top 15 electric vehicle producers are Chinese, and five of them saw triple-digit growth in 2022. Atop the leaderboard now sits BYD, a company that many investors became familiar with when Warren Buffett decided to invest in them back in 2017, something we covered in our piece titled Why Warren Buffett is Buying Snowflake Stock
