BYD Co became the best-selling car brand in China for the first time, dethroning Volkswagen AG and continuing its rapid growth, Bloomberg reported, citing Agerpres.

BYD, a company in which the Berkshire Hathaway fund controlled by American billionaire Warren Buffett holds a 12% stake, surpassed its German rival in the first quarter of 2023 by selling more than 440,000 more cars in the Chinese market, according to auto. industry data analyzed by Bloomberg.

The president of the Chinese electric car maker, Wang Chuanfu, said in March that BYD wants to overtake Volkswagen by the end of this year.

Volkswagen has been China’s best-selling car brand since at least 2008, when data from the China Automotive Research and Technology Center became available.

In the first quarter of 2023, sales of the Volkswagen brand in China totaled 427,247 units, with electric vehicles accounting for only 6% of shipments.

Locally produced cars are gaining popularity among the Chinese

The trend reflects a decline in the influence of foreign brands amid an increase in the production of affordable and sophisticated electric vehicles by Chinese companies.

“BYD is very, very strong. After all, it’s not about sales. We want to have a successful business, and it is much more important to be the best international group that is represented in China,” Volkswagen General Manager Oliver Blume said at the Shanghai Motor Show this month.

Shenzhen-based BYD will sell 1.86 million vehicles in 2022, higher than the combined level of the previous four years. This year, the Chinese automaker plans to sell at least three million cars.

In the first quarter of 2023, BYD sold nearly 550,000 vehicles worldwide, more than all registered passenger cars in the UK during that period. The Chinese group is expanding abroad, especially in Europe, Latin America and some Asian markets.

In January of this year, The Wall Street Journal reported that BYD plans to buy a Ford plant in Germany, signaling that China is no longer just an export market for the German auto industry.

The Buffett-backed automaker has no plans to enter the US market

BYD currently has no plans to sell its electric vehicles in the U.S., Wang said last month. Shares of BYD are up 16% on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange this year and have a market capitalization of about $95 billion, Volkswagen shares at $77 billion and Tesla at $515 billion.

BYD’s impressive growth comes despite years of disapproval of the quality and safety of electric cars in China, highlighted by staggeringly high service recall rates that sometimes exceed 10 percent.

Among the most prominent critics was Tesla CEO and co-founder Elon Musk.

– Have you seen their car? Musk said in an interview with Bloomberg in 2011. “I don’t think I’m making a good product,” he said at the time.