China’s BYD overtook Tesla as the world’s largest electric carmaker in 2025, after the US company run by Elon Musk reported a slump in deliveries at the end of the year.
BYD sold 2.26m battery electric cars during the year, easily outstripping the 1.63m deliveries reported on Friday by Tesla for the same period.
The switch is a symbolic moment in the rise of China’s car companies, which have used the transition to electric cars to try to dominate the global automotive industry. Chinese car exports have risen in recent years, led by BYD and rivals such as the state-owned SAIC and Chery, which runs the Omoda and Jaecoo brands.
Electric car sales have continued to grow in the past two years, but the rate of growth has been slower than expected. Electric carmakers have been forced to cut prices aggressively, and governments around the world have rolled back targets on the shift away from petrol.
Tesla’s sales appear to have suffered in large part because of the withdrawal of electric vehicle (EV) subsidies by Donald Trump. The US president has also removed emissions regulations that incentivised electric car production.
Tesla’s deliveries slumped to 418,200 in the final quarter of the year, below the average forecasts of analysts. Sales for 2025 were down by 9% compared with 2024.
An average compiled by Bloomberg had suggested that Tesla would deliver 441,000 vehicles during the quarter, but Tesla took the unusual step before the new year of publishing its own consensus estimate for the first time, apparently in an effort to guide investors that sales were expected to be lower.
Trump’s anti-EV policies came despite Musk donating more money than anyone else to the victorious 2024 presidential election campaign and briefly running an effort to cut government costs. Musk at first seemed to win support for EVs from Trump – and even an awkward photoshoot in a Tesla in front of the White House – but they fell out dramatically in the summer.
BYD’s electric car sales rose by 28% during the year despite a weaker performance in December.
BYD was founded in 1995 as a battery company by Wang Chuanfu, who is often described as China’s equivalent to Musk. Its business already produced more cars overall than Tesla when counting hybrids.
The Shenzhen-headquartered manufacturer has overtaken Tesla during single quarters before. However, its battery electric production pulled away from its US rival in 2025, even as it faced intense competition from Chinese rivals.
BYD recorded 4.55m car sales overall during 2025, although its sales of plug-in hybrids fell by 8% year on year to 2.29m. That came despite an uptick in sales of plug-in hybrids, combining a smaller battery with a petrol or diesel engine, in some markets from consumers worried about their ability to charge. BYD also more than doubled its sales of commercial vehicles, including electric buses and lorries, to 57,000.
