Five years ago, Tesla was the face of the EV revolution. No other company came close. CEO Elon Musk was dancing and prancing as he predicted Tesla would sell 20 million electric cars a year — twice as many EVs as all the cars manufactured annually by Toyota.
But as 2025 drew to a close, the company that delivered more electric cars than anyone else was BYD, with 2.257 million fully electric vehicles (BEVs) sold. Tesla — which slipped to second place with 1.64 million sales for the year after delivering only 418,000 cars in the fourth quarter — experienced a steep decline from the 496,000 cars delivered in the fourth quarter of 2024.
According to BYD’s latest sales report, the company sold 2.26 million electric cars globally last year, up 28 percent from 2024. In addition, the company recorded many more sales outside of China, particularly in Asia, Europe, and Latin America.
Unlike Tesla, BYD also manufactures plug-in hybrids, which allows it to meet shifting consumer and regulatory demands in a way that Tesla cannot. Its total sales in 2025 amounted to 4.6 million vehicles — nearly half as many as mighty Toyota, which still prioritizes sales of conventional hybrid vehicles.
In its home market, BYD has faced stronger competition from other Chinese automakers, especially Xpeng and Geely, which resulted in fewer sales this December than last December. Nevertheless, its export business continues to grow. In addition, it has a new factory coming online in Hungary and is planning another in Turkey.
Tesla has not opened a new factory since the facility in Grūnheide, Germany, started operations in 2022. What is even more telling is that Tesla has not indicated it plans to add manufacturing capacity anytime in the foreseeable future.
Bloomberg reports that at an investor meeting in December, BYD founder and CEO Wang Chuanfu said the technological head start the company had maintained over the past few years had diminished and that has affected domestic sales. But with more than 120,000 engineers employed by the company, he hinted that new technology breakthroughs would be forthcoming soon, giving him confidence about the company’s ability to regain its advantage.
BYD delivered 1.05 million cars to foreign customers in 2025 and expects that number to rise to as many as 1.6 million in 2026, according to a report by Citigroup based on a meeting with BYD management late last year.
Automakers in China are enduring a period of brutal competition that has had a negative impact on profits, but the government has put new policies in place to curb the worst of those abuses and most analysts remain confident BYD can weather the challenges better than others companies.
BYD’s total sales could grow to 5.3 million units next year, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Analysts at Deutsche Bank expect new product launches and the unveiling of a technology platform to boost the company’s competitiveness. The Guardian notes that one area where BYD has done especially well is in sales of electric buses and heavy duty trucks. Sales of those vehicles doubled in 2025 to 57,000 units. Where Tesla is content to talk about what it is going to do, BYD is busy doing.
At this moment, there are no other companies on the horizon that seem capable of stealing BYD’s EV sales crown, and yet its stock valuation is a tiny fraction of Tesla’s. That is what some people call “cognitive dissonance,” but if BYD continues doing what it had done so far, that equation could change dramatically.
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Steve writes about the interface between technology and sustainability from his home in Florida or anywhere else The Force may lead him. He is proud to be “woke” and believes weak leaders push others down while strong leaders lift others up. You can follow him on Substack at https://stevehanley.substack.com/ but not on Fakebook or any social media platforms controlled by narcissistic yahoos.
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