Tesla loses its electric crown to BYD as sales continue to decline

Unlike Elon Musk With his list Broken promisesStatistics don’t lie. Tesla has lost the title of the world’s largest vehicle maker Electric vehicles To the Chinese automaker BYD. The signs have been around for a while, with BYD outselling Tesla in Europe Several times During 2025. And now it’s official on a global level.

Even though he was banned Entering the American marketBYD’s seemingly unstoppable rise continues, with electric vehicle sales last year rising 28 percent to 2.25 million. On the other hand, Tesla announced today its delivery 1.64 million vehicles in 2025– Its second annual decline in a row, and a 16 percent decline year-on-year for the fourth quarter. This isn’t just a Chinese brand beating Tesla in the electric car race; It’s a remarkable transformation.

Last week, BYD reported that in 2025 it sold 4.6 million “new energy vehicles” (which includes both fully electric vehicles and Hybrid plugin) globally, with more than one million cars exported. Its exports of passenger cars specifically rose more than 145 percent year-on-year.

This news comes after a frankly disastrous year for Tesla, which saw the high-selling Model Y, which is crucial to both Elon Musk and his car company, get a tepid The update bombedFailure to reverse sales problems. It was also a year that was only revealed How few people bought the A lot of reprimands Cybertruck; In March, another He remembers It revealed that the company appears to have sold less than 50,000 electric pickups since it began deliveries to customers 14 months ago. Musk had told investors that Tesla would sell 250,000 Turkish cyber trucks annually.

With Tesla sales In the United StatesAnd in Free fall in EuropeElon Musk turned to the United States President Donald Trump To help. Trump was forced to turn the South Lawn of the White House into a temporary garden Tesla showroom, claiming that he would buy Peppy himself Model S Embossed. But by June, it was reported that Trump might as well Sell ​​the car Yet publicly Disagreement with Musk.

Just last month, EV news site Electrek reported that Musk SpaceX had bought Tens of millions of dollars worth of Cybertrucks Which Tesla supposedly can’t sell. (You can see all the pickups lined up at SpaceX This video.) If true, the move would significantly boost Tesla’s financial performance in the fourth quarter of 2025, providing at least some relief to the automaker after the crisis. The United States has ended tax breaks for electric vehicles At the end of the third quarter.

Musk recently claimed that a shift away from electric vehicles would secure the company’s future — along with a Trillion dollar salary package For him. Tesla is relying on robotaxis and producing legions of Optimus robots to fill the gap. The problem is that despite Musk’s promise to deliver a million humanoid robots over the next decade, (Comic) shots. Remotely operated machines are still emerging.