Hi, it's Akshad. As a bonus this week, we are bringing you an episode from our sister podcast, The Big Take. It's about the Chinese electric car company, BYD, and why it's outperforming Tesla. This episode was originally published last week.

Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts, Radio, News.

In the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, between North Africa and Italy, lies Malta.

A sunny, tiny island nation that's known for its beaches and ancient temples.

But it might not seem worth the attention of a disruptive, global car brand. So when Gabrielle Coppola, a Bloomberg

auto reporter based in Detroit, heard that B.Y.D, the Chinese EV company, was selling their

all-electric model, the Otto 3 in Malta.

She was intrigued.

They sold new cars on the island of Malta last year was around 7,200.

How many cars were sold in the U.S.?

Over 15 million.

So that is like a piece of a fingernail of the size of the U.S. car market.

I mean, it is tiny.

But Malta isn't too tiny for BYD.

Gabrielle says Malta and small markets like it are part of a key strategy in BYD's global expansion.

BYD is facing heavy tariffs in some of the biggest auto markets, the U.S. and the

EU. So it's looking to boost sales in emerging countries that don't have their own

auto industries. One automotive analyst compared its strategy to chicken ribs, because chicken

ribs don't have much meat on them, but you also don't want to throw them away and let them go to waste.

It's like a chicken rib market. You know, you add up all those chicken ribs, that's a lot of meat.

And in all these countries and all those little bits of meat, all those chicken ribs add up to like 10 million cars.

And you've got a real business outside of China.

...