BYD sold more pure battery electric vehicles than Tesla for the first time last month, a "watershed moment" for the region's car market, JATO Dynamics said.

Despite the EU's imposition of tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, registrations of such cars increased 59% in April from a year earlier.

BYDs Hong Kong-listed shares (HK:1211) soared to a record high of HK$477.80 on Friday, driven by news that the Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker outsold Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) in Europe for the first time.