BYD, a Chinese company, has gone one step closer to dethroning Elon Musk's Tesla as the world's largest seller of electric automobiles.
The company announced on Monday that it sold a record 526,000 battery-only vehicles in the last three months of 2023.
This was aided by a more than 70% increase in December sales.
Tesla, located in the United States, is set to announce its most recent quarterly vehicle manufacturing and delivery data before Wall Street starts on Tuesday.
BYD, located in Shenzen, claimed it sold more than 3 million so-called new energy vehicles (NEVs) last year, which included battery-only vehicles and hybrids.
According to the company, battery-only vehicles accounted for over 1.6 million of its total sales.
According to industry forecasts, Tesla will sell around 483,000 electric vehicles in the last three months of 2023 and 1.82 million for the whole year.
Musk stated in January that Tesla could produce 2 million vehicles by 2023, but has subsequently warned that increasing financing costs are placing pressure on demand for his company's vehicles.
Wang Chuanfu, BYD's CEO, co-founded the company with his cousin in Shenzhen in 1995.
The firm earned a reputation for itself as a maker of rechargeable batteries, which were used in cellphones, laptop computers, and other electronic devices, and competed with more expensive Japanese imports.
It began selling stock on the stock exchange in 2002 and diversified by acquiring Qinchuan Automobile Company, a failing state-owned vehicle manufacturer.
BYD has been a stakeholder in experienced US investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway since 2008.
According to analysts, BYD's development may be attributed to its basic business: batteries. They are among the most costly components of an EV, and producing them in-house saves BYD a significant amount of money. Many of BYD's rivals rely on third-party battery producers.