For years, the Tesla community has joked, "The competition is coming," because every EV talked about was suddenly the Tesla killer. Recent numbers show no competition for Tesla in North America; all the other manufacturers could pool their numbers together and still not come close to Tesla's sales.
The latest sales figures prompted Elon Musk to state once again, "The competition is coming." There's no denying that Musk's company has reshaped the automotive world's landscape, especially in North America, where its supremacy is almost undisputed. However, when we cast our eyes further East to China, a different story begins to unravel, and a formidable challenger, BYD, steps onto the stage. That casual comment is starting to sound increasingly prophetic.
Q3 Numbers Show BYD is Coming
The latest Q3 sales data reveals an intriguing trend. While Tesla delivered a commendable 435,059 pure electric cars, BYD was hot on its heels with sales of 431,603 pure electric passenger vehicles. This places BYD's EV sales at an impressive 99.21% of Tesla's for this quarter. To provide context, Tesla outsold BYD by more than 670,000 vehicles in the preceding six quarters. Now, the sales gap has narrowed dramatically to a mere 3,456 units.
Moreover, while Tesla's quarter-to-quarter growth experienced a dip of 6.7% (mainly due to factory shutdown for retooling and buyers awaiting the new Model 3), BYD's pure EV sales witnessed a significant surge, boasting a year-on-year growth of 66.9%. Current trends suggest BYD might even surpass Tesla in the upcoming Q4 sales.
Global EV Race Is Just Starting
Both companies manifest global ambitions, setting up vehicle factories in various parts of the world. Tesla's footprint extends worldwide, with an upcoming factory in Mexico. In contrast, BYD is bolstering its position with facilities in China and substantial investments in countries like Uzbekistan, Thailand, and Brazil. But, BYD is now looking at the North American market with a starting point in Mexico.
The global stage is set for fierce competition between these automotive giants. BYD's aggressive push into the Mexican market with its electric offerings, like the recently unveiled DOLPHIN, underlines its global ambitions. As the brand further cements its presence, with endeavors like expanding to 50 dealership stores across all 32 Mexican states, the groundwork for a North American entry seems to be laid.
Beyond just numbers, BYD's commitment to innovation is evident. The DOLPHIN, for instance, with its unique "Ocean Aesthetics design philosophy," its efficient fast-charging capability, and a range of 405 km, exemplifies the company's drive to merge aesthetics with performance. Additionally, their play isn't solely in the EV space; BYD's diverse technological background spanning over 28 years across different sectors sets them apart.
Competition is Good
Yet, framing this as a mere 'Tesla vs. BYD' scenario would be remiss. This growth and competition signify a more considerable momentum in the global shift towards sustainable transportation. As BYD expands its footprint, it reinforces the idea that the EV revolution is not a monopoly but a collective endeavor. However, for Tesla enthusiasts and market analysts alike, the movements of BYD, especially in China, are becoming impossible to ignore.
While Tesla has been enjoying its reign, BYD's recent strides remind us that the crown is up for grabs in the dynamic world of electric vehicles. Elon Musk's playful warning might have been more prescient than anyone realized: the competition is not just coming; it's already here.
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One of the upcoming features of the 2024 Tesla Holiday Update is the ability for Tesla owners to make custom wraps for their vehicles. The wraps will be displayed in the vehicle’s visualizations and in the Tesla app. You’ll also be able to select one of the wraps Tesla has provided if you prefer not to make or download your own.
This feature will roll out to the Cybertruck next week with the Holiday update, but it will be available for other models in the future as well.
Making your own wrap is super easy and takes just a few minutes. It doesn’t even require any special tools or software because Tesla provided a template.
Making a Custom Wrap
We’ll walk you through the steps to create your custom wrap. All you’ll need is an image editing program and an image editing program.
Download the Template
Tesla has all the details on their Github repository for Custom Wraps, but you can simply download the template below and open it in your favorite image editor like Adobe Photoshop, GIMP or even Windows Paint on Windows 11. Any software that supports layers will work.
Image Editor
Open the template in your image editor and create a new layer on top of it. You’ll want to edit on this new layer, not on the template layer, which we’ll hide later.
The template, in all its glory.
Not a Tesla App
Create the Wrap
Go ahead and work your artistic magic—here, we’ve taken a graffiti rendition of Not A Tesla App and our logo and placed it within the template's bounds.
Flex those creative muscles!
Not a Tesla App
Hide the Template
Go ahead and hide the template layer - you can also delete the layer if you want. This standalone image doesn’t look like much, but this is what we need for the final step.
Looks a bit simple right?
Not a Tesla App
Export
You’ll want to export the image with transparency - so it needs to be a .png file. You'll be good to go as long as it's the same dimensions as the template. We’ve gone ahead and exported our custom NATA wrap here - feel free to download it and let us know how it looks once you get the 2024.44.25 update.
The completed product.
Not a Tesla App
A couple of technical limitations:
The image must be 1024x768 pixels.
File Size max is 1MB.
You can’t use any special characters in the file name, and it must be shorter than 30 characters.
PNG is the only acceptable file format
You can load up to 10 images on your USB drive
Add Wrap to USB Drive
The last, and easiest step. Grab your USB drive, and create a folder called “Wraps” at the root level of the drive. Place your images in there, and you’re all set.
Load a Custom Wrap
Not a Tesla App
After placing the images on your USB drive and inserting it in your vehicle, you can then open Toybox > Paint Shop, and tap on Wrap. From there select your wrap from the custom list of images.
Tesla’s upcoming Holiday update introduces exciting new personalization features, giving you even more ways to customize your vehicle.
Building on the existing Colorizer feature, which lets you change the car’s color, the update will allow you to add a custom wrap and a license plate to the vehicle’s visualization. Both of these features will affect the vehicle's visualization on the screen and in the Tesla app.
While these features were originally announced to be exclusive to the Cybertruck, Tesla has now clarified and said that they will be available for other models in a future update. We expect them to be introduced for the Model 3 (new and old), Model Y, and the redesigned Model S and Model X.
Wrap & license plate customization coming to other models in future updates
Tesla announced custom wrap visualizations as part of the 2024 Holiday update for the Cybertruck. They’ve provided a template and instructions on how to design your own custom wrap and also included a few in-house designs, including the “unhinged” Doge wrap, the Cybertruck Graffiti wraps from the Baja Off-Road testing, and the Release Candidate wraps, amongst plenty of other simple ones. In all, it looks like Tesla will be providing 27 designs.
However, making your own wrap is actually very simple, and we’ll be providing instructions on how to create your own. Once these arrive for other vehicles, the instructions will likely be the same.
License Plate Visualization
Not a Tesla App
You’ll also be able to create custom license plates to show on your vehicle visualization. You’ll be able to choose custom text, and then also include a background - with plain colors, a stock image, or upload your own image.
If you have custom plates in real life, this is your chance to make your visualization perfectly match your vehicle.
Release for Other Models
Tesla hasn’t provided a timeline but said the feature would arrive in “future updates” in their post on X. It seems that it won’t be arriving with the upcoming Holiday update for all vehicles but will instead make its way to the S3XY lineup over the next few months.
We expect it to arrive sometime in early 2025. We’re super excited to see these come to more vehicles, so in the meantime, show us your best custom Cybertruck wrap on social media or our forums.
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