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New car registrations information from JATO Dynamics shows that BYD s Europe volumes rose in April from last year BYD s success in the EU comes despite the economic bloc s imposition of punitive tariffs on battery electric vehicles made in China last October BYD sold more pure battery electric vehicles in Europe than Tesla for the first time ever last month a watershed moment for the region s car arena according to a document from JATO Dynamics New car registrations figures from the automotive intelligence firm shows that BYD s Europe volumes rose in April from last year as the company continues its global expansion efforts Over the same period Tesla announced yet another monthly drop with total volumes down JATO commented That follows protests against CEO Elon Musk and the company in the region JATO s input comes from European nations According to Felipe Munoz global automotive analyst at JATO though the difference between the two brands monthly sales totals is relatively small the implications of BYD beating out Tesla are enormous JATO added that BYD is also beating well established European car brands across the region outselling Fiat and Seat in France for example This is a watershed moment for Europe s car arena particularly when you consider that Tesla has led the European BEV domain for years while BYD only officially began operations beyond Norway and the Netherlands in late Munoz disclosed That improvement comes even before production begins at its new plant in Hungary which is expected to become the center of European production operations Tesla also reportedly has plans to expand its manufacturing plant in Germany Europe is emerging as a central battleground between BYD and Tesla Liz Lee associate director at tool realm research firm Counterpoint Research notified CNBC She added that the region is expected to experience higher EV advancement this year than China which already has high EV penetration Tariff shrug BYD s success in the EU comes despite the economic bloc s imposition of punitive tariffs on battery EVs made in China last October It attributed the move to unfair commerce practices The punitive tariffs appeared to be favorable to Tesla assigning its made-in-China vehicles a duty compared with BYD s Other Chinese EV makers were given tariffs as high as about The EU also has a standard car import duty JATO s record commented that while tariffs had an initial impact on the sales of Chinese automakers the companies have mitigated it by expanding and diversifying their European line-ups with the introduction of plug-in hybrids China is not only the world leader in BEVs its automakers are global leaders in plug-in hybrid vehicles too Munoz declared Battery EVs run entirely on electricity while hybrid vehicles combine an electric battery with an internal combustion engine Hybrid vehicles have not yet been targeted by EU tariffs Meanwhile there has been growing demand in the region s EV segment with JATO content showing that registrations of battery EVs and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are up by and respectively despite declines among internal combustion engine vehicles Registrations of all electric vehicles made by Chinese automakers in April rose by year on year reaching almost units in April the document added Ahead of the EU s tariff decision last year Rhodium had predicted that tariffs would need to be as high as for the European realm to be unattractive for Chinese EV exporters In March it was revealed that Tesla which only sells pure battery vehicles fell behind BYD in total annual sales Tesla s shares have fallen over over the same period amid blowback from Musk s involvement with the administration of U S President Donald Trump The CEO in recent days committed to leading Tesla for the next five years BYD shares were up in Hong Kong trading on Friday and have surged about year to date