Tesla Inc (TSLA  ) CEO Elon Musk on Sunday showered praise on Chinese automakers as competition.

What Happened: "Chinese automakers are the most competitive in our experience," Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter. The CEO was responding to a list of top-selling EVs in the world starting from January this year to the end of August.

As per the data compiled by Clean Technica, the Tesla Model Y was the world's top-selling EV in the world, followed by BYD Co's (BYDDY  ) (BYDDF  ) Song if one also includes hybrids. Within battery electric vehicles alone, the Model Y is seconded by the Model 3.

The list of the top-selling 20 EVs has no vehicles manufactured by the legacy Detroit three: Ford Motor Co, General Motors, or Stellantis. In fact, the only non-Chinese EVs to be featured on the list belong to Tesla, Volkswagen, Volvo, or Hyundai.

BYD, backed by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, is also fast catching up with Tesla in the BEV segment.

Why It Matters: Musk has commended Chinese automakers for their expertise in the past too.

In January, Musk said that he has a lot of respect for the car companies in China as they work the hardest and smartest.

"And so we would guess, there is probably some company out of China as the most likely to be second to Tesla," Musk then said.