BYD Sales Drop 36% In February: Elon Musk Says Running Below 50% Capacity Is 'Mega Pain'
Chinese EV giant BYD Co. Ltd. (OTC:BYDDY) (OTC:BYDDF) reported a drop in sales during the first two months of 2026, which has raised concerns about the world's largest EV maker's sales, including from Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk.
BYD Sales Drop
On Monday, AJ Investment Research posted on the social media platform X, outlining BYD's sales decline in 2026. "BYD is currently running at below 50% capacity and sales dropped 36%," the researcher said.
I've never seen a more rapid sales collapse outside a severe ecnomic recession. BYD is currently running at below 50% capacity and sales dropped 36% on a apples-to-apples basis.
— AJ Investment Research (@alojoh) March 2, 2026
The trailing 2-months sales rate, which removes the effects of Lunar New Year, is down 36%!
Chart… pic.twitter.com/jA8bWOTOGJ
Musk, responding to the post, shared his take on the sales drop. "That's tough sledding," he said in his response. He added that factories perform well when they're running at "above 80% capacity," but shared that factories would function marginally well at 60% capacity, but are "mega pain below 50%."
That's tough sledding. Factories do great above 80% capacity, marginal at 60% and mega pain below 50%.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 2, 2026
Geely Overtakes BYD
The news comes as Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. (OTC:GELYF) (OTC:GELHY) outsold BYD for the second consecutive month in China, as the former sold 76,000 more units than BYD during the first two months of 2026.
However, overseas sales remain a strong point for BYD, which recently recorded a 165% surge in the European region, while Tesla recorded a 17% decline in sales.
Tesla's Cybertruck Price Hike
Meanwhile, Tesla hiked the price of the affordable Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive variant of the Cybertruck by $10,000. The Cybertruck lineup now starts from $69,990 for the base trim and goes all the way up to $99,990 for the top-spec Cyberbeast trim level.
Despite the seemingly strong demand for the pickup, investor Gary Black, who is the managing director of The Future Fund LLC, opined that the affordable trim level would not be able to generate better sales for the automaker.
Check out more of Benzinga's Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.
Photo courtesy: Tada Images / Shutterstock.com
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
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