BYD Passes Tesla as the World’s Top Seller of Battery-Electric Cars

China’s BYD outsold Tesla in battery-electric vehicles in 2025, taking the title of world’s largest seller of all-electric cars for the first time, as Tesla reported a drop in deliveries. Tesla said Friday that it delivered 1.64 million vehicles last year, about 9 percent fewer than the 1.79 million it delivered in 2024, according to CBS News.

BYD reported that its all-electric sales rose nearly 28 percent to more than 2.25 million vehicles. Electrek, an outlet that tracks the industry, put the figures at 2,254,714 for BYD and 1,636,129 for Tesla, a gap of more than 600,000 cars. BYD’s overall tally was larger still: 4,550,036 vehicles including plug-in hybrids, which accounted for about half of its sales and fell 7.9 percent from 2024, Electrek reported.

Tesla’s fourth quarter was weak. It delivered 418,227 vehicles, down 15.6 percent from a year earlier and below the roughly 440,000 that analysts polled by FactSet had expected, CBS News reported. CBS pointed to several causes: the expiration last fall of the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles, rising competition, and consumer backlash over Elon Musk’s work with the Trump administration, a backlash Gulf News also cited. Musk led the Department of Government Efficiency and stepped back in May to focus on Tesla, CBS noted. Electrek argued that Tesla’s aging lineup and the lack of a cheaper new platform also held back volume.

Tesla tried to respond in October with stripped-down versions of the Model Y and Model 3, priced at just under $40,000 and under $37,000, CBS reported. Those cars were included in the fourth-quarter numbers for the first time.

BYD’s own year was less smooth than the headline suggests. Gulf News reported that its sales growth in 2025 was the slowest in five years, squeezed at home by domestic rivals such as XPeng and Nio, and Electrek noted that its domestic sales fell significantly late in the year. The company’s expansion has relied on exports. Electrek said BYD’s overseas sales passed 1 million vehicles for the first time, up 150 percent. Gulf News reported that BYD is expanding in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Europe, often despite steep tariffs on Chinese EVs, and that the company named Britain its largest market outside China in October.

For American readers, the contest is happening largely outside the U.S. BYD’s cars are not sold here, CBS noted, while its sales are surging in Europe and Australia, partly because of lower prices than Tesla’s, according to the BBC as cited by CBS. The comparison also covers only battery-electric cars. Counting plug-in hybrids, BYD’s lead is far larger.

Investors have largely looked past the sales decline. Tesla shares gained about 11 percent in 2025 and rose 0.9 percent in early Friday trading to $453.88, CBS reported. Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities said he estimates the AI and autonomous driving opportunity is worth at least $1 trillion for Tesla alone, while describing the core auto business as facing “a more difficult demand environment following the end of the EV tax credit.” Investors are counting on the energy business, a humanoid robot effort and the robotaxi service to carry growth, CBS said.