FirstFT: BYD takes top spot as world’s biggest EV maker

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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Good morning and happy new year. Welcome back to FirstFT.

We start with the news that BYD has officially become the world’s best-selling electric-vehicle maker. The Chinese electric-vehicle manufacturer knocked Tesla off the top spot for the first time after the US group, led by Elon Musk, recorded fewer deliveries than its rival in the past quarter.

Tesla reported yesterday that it handed over 484,000 cars in the fourth quarter, more than the 473,000 anticipated by analysts but not enough to hold on to its title after BYD reported record sales of battery-only vehicles of 526,000 for the same period.

Tesla’s dethroning by BYD reflects the rise of what was a little-known Chinese group only a decade ago, which Musk himself publicly dismissed. While growth at the Warren Buffett-backed Chinese company has been mostly achieved on its home turf, BYD is sharpening its focus on finding new foreign markets including in Europe. Read the full story for more on BYD’s rise.

And here’s what else I’ll be watching today.

• PMI data: India and Singapore’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index data for December are set to be released today.

• Japan markets closed: Financial markets remain closed after the New Year’s Day holiday

• Federal Reserve minutes: Federal Open Market Committee issues minutes from its last meeting, after Wall Street stocks started the year with a technology-led hangover.

Read our special edition of the Week Ahead newsletter for big moments in the diary for the year ahead.

Five more top stories

1. A senior Hamas political leader and at least two of the Palestinian group’s military commanders have been killed in an explosion in Beirut, an attack that it and Lebanon blamed on an Israeli drone strike. Here’s what we know so far.

2. Japan dispatched 10,000 of its military forces to help relief efforts after a New Year’s Day earthquake left at least 55 dead and dozens injured. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Tuesday that authorities were in a “battle against time” to respond.

• Japan collision: Five people were killed in an aviation accident after a passenger plane collided with a coastguard aircraft at Tokyo’s Haneda airport. The coastguard aeroplane was taking emergency supplies to support the earthquake relief effort, Japan’s tourism minister said.

3. BT misses UK government deadline for removing all telecoms equipment supplied by Huawei. British telecoms operators were required to rip out equipment from the central parts of their networks by December 31 as part of a wider ban over national security concerns. BT said more than 99 per cent “of all core traffic is now being served by non-Huawei kit”. Other groups have also tried to hit the deadline and face potential fines.

4. The leader of South Korea’s leftwing opposition, Lee Jae-myung, was stabbed in the neck in Busan yesterday, throwing the country’s politics into flux ahead of parliamentary elections in April. The alleged assailant was a man in his 60s who was wearing a paper crown with Lee’s name on it, according to media reports. Here’s what we know about the attack.

5. The private equity industry has entered 2024 with record amounts of unspent investor cash and an unprecedented stockpile of ageing deals that firms must sell in coming years. Firms were sitting on a record $2.59tn in cash reserves available for buyouts and other investments as of December 15, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Executives say the industry faces a big test this year.

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The Big Read

What will be left of Gaza when the war ends? The infrastructure and economy of the enclave have been shattered, and Gazans displaced by the conflict fear that nothing will be left for which to return.

We’re also reading . . . 

• Big Four: Scandals and strategic mis-steps exposed shortcomings in governance at the top accounting and consulting firms last year, prompting a rethink about how best to hold management to task.

• Afghan women: Tens of thousands of Afghan women and girls have been able to evade the Taliban’s ban on female education with online study programmes.

• The free world: Democracy is on a downward trajectory, writes Janan Ganesh, but so is a boxer who loses a round after winning six. Have we given autocrats too much credit?

Chart of the day

China’s best-known tech group has lost its direction. Our reporters went inside the crisis at Alibaba and found employees who painted a picture of a flailing enterprise, where Chinese rivals are surpassing the company in market capitalisation.

Take a break from the news

A spirit of inclusiveness is driving a trend for running clubs that are convivial, not competitive. The FT’s Emma Jacobs joined the Runners High Run Club and discovered the perks of slow running.

Additional reporting by Gordon Smith and Tee Zhuo