It’s the world’s hottest car company. You can’t buy one in America

In the world of electric vehicles (EV), a Chinese car maker has gotten the upper hand over Tesla in just a few years. And it seems to be just getting started.

In the world of electric vehicles, there’s a Chinese company outdoing Elon Musk’s Tesla. And it’s just getting started. BYD, the Shenzhen-based Chinese EV champion, eclipsed Tesla in annual sales last year. Last week, it unveiled a revolutionary battery charging technology that it says adds 250 miles of range in five minutes, outpacing Tesla’s Superchargers, which take 15 minutes to add 200 miles. And last month, BYD launched “God’s Eye,” an advanced driver-assistance system rivaling Tesla’s Full Self-Driving feature, at no extra cost for most of its cars. They’re just three examples of how BYD has been pulling ahead of Tesla. The company once casually dismissed by Elon Musk is now effectively outperforming Tesla in sales, innovation and price competitiveness. “They’re not resting on their laurels, as you can see from the God’s Eye announcement and from the fast-charging announcement,” Tu Le, founder and managing director of the consultancy firm Sino Auto Insights, told CNN. “They’re content to push the envelope and set the pace for the whole world.” Having dominated its home market of China, the world’s largest auto market, BYD is starting to expand globally, with notable exceptions like the United States, a country it is effectively barred from due to 100% tariffs on its passenger cars. Here’s everything you need to know about the rise of the Chinese EV maker, and how it is upending the global market for clean-energy cars.