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.

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%."

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.

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