BYD beats Dacia, Honda and Citroen: Chinese EV giant already outsells ‘big’ UK brands
EV sales were up slightly last month year-on-year, but overall car sales were down as buyers tried to dodge increased road tax
Chinese electric car giant BYD has outsold the likes of Dacia, Honda and Citroen in the UK during the first four months of 2025. It even exceeded the sales figures of MINI and Tesla in April, hinting at the firm’s potential future dominance of the British new-car market.
Between the beginning of January and end of April, just shy of 11,800 new BYDs were registered in the UK, with over 2,500 hitting the roads last month alone. Budget brand Dacia, on the other hand, has only managed to register 11,200 new cars in the UK so far this year. There were over 500 fewer new Dacias reaching the roads in April than BYDs.
Also lagging behind BYD are other big name brands such as Honda, with 10,100 registrations so far this year, Citroen with 11,500, Porsche with 6,500, Suzuki with 7,000, Lexus with 5,400 and Fiat with 4,400; even Tesla only scraped more sales than BYD, with almost 13,000 registrations.
UK new car registrations January to April 2025
| Brand | Number of registrations | Brand | Number of registrations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alfa Romeo | 950 | Mercedes-Benz | 32,786 |
| Audi | 35,823 | MG | 28,430 |
| BMW | 43,645 | MINI | 15,561 |
| BYD | 11,782 | Nissan | 32,754 |
| Citroen | 5,347 | Omoda | 4,104 |
| Cupra | 12,237 | Peugeot | 34,450 |
| Dacia | 11,238 | Polestar | 4,554 |
| Fiat | 4,373 | Porsche | 6,556 |
| Ford | 41,709 | Renault | 22,062 |
| Genesis | 460 | SEAT | 8,795 |
| GWM | 124 | Skoda | 28,055 |
| Honda | 10,108 | Subaru | 916 |
| Hyundai | 31,410 | Suzuki | 6,940 |
| Jaecoo | 4,288 | Tesla | 12,986 |
| Jeep | 4,900 | Toyota | 31,445 |
| Kia | 43,383 | Vauxhall | 32,533 |
| Land Rover | 24,932 | Volkswagen | 63,630 |
| Lexus | 5,447 | Volvo | 23,198 |
| Mazda | 12,537 |
Although it may be a relatively new brand to British buyers, BYD has been around a long time in its homeland, China. The firm, also known as ‘Build Your Dreams’, formed its automotive division to build cars and commercial vehicles in 2003 but also has a major foothold in the battery business, supplying components for devices such as smartphones.
Over the last few years, BYD has expanded out of China and into Western markets, a move which has increased its sales exponentially. In 2024, BYD sold as many as 4.3 million vehicles globally, outselling even Tesla - although, the number of EVs both brands sold was roughly the same.
BYD’s success comes at a time when the surge of EV sales in the UK is beginning to slow. So far in 2025, electric cars only account for one in five new car sales, which lags behind the 28 per cent market share forecasted by the government’s ZEV mandate. This comes as part of an overall slump in the UK car market altogether, with around 10 per cent fewer sales in April 2025 compared to the same period last year.
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