BYD beats Tesla as global sales slump for Elon Musk’s EV brand

BYD has officially surpassed Tesla as the industry leader in battery-electric vehicle sales, after Elon Musk’s EV brand posted a near nine per cent year-on-year drop in sales in 2024.

According to Tesla’s 2025 Q4 results, the firm delivered 1,636,129 new electric cars last year, compared with 1,789,226 in 2024. This marks the second consecutive annual sales drop for Tesla, which has until now reigned as the undisputed champion of the global EV market.

Conversely, China’s BYD saw its annual electric car sales rocket by 28 per cent in 2025 to 2,254,714 globally, despite a minor dip towards the end of the year. 

BYD has previously outsold Tesla in certain months here in the UK – in October, BYD claimed the UK constituted its biggest market outside China – or for electrified vehicles overall (i.e. including its fleet of hybridised models). However, this is the first time it has overtaken Tesla for annual global sales of pure-electric cars.

It’s been a long time coming, though, as competition from rival brands has slowly eroded Tesla’s market dominance, with Chinese equivalents offering competitive range and technology for less. 

Professor of Business Economics at the University of Birmingham, David Bailey, told Auto Express: “Tesla is being outcompeted by the likes of BYD and other Chinese firms which offer better value, good quality, rapid innovation and excellent battery technology.”

Bailey continued, pointing out how Tesla’s line-up remains “limited and dated” and how it has “failed to bring a small mass market car to market”. In response to similar criticisms and to try and reinvigorate sales, Tesla recently introduced the new, lower-priced ‘Standard’ version of the Tesla Model Y. However, slowing consumer interest in electric cars may make this difficult.

Following legislation signed by President Donald Trump, tax credits for electric cars in the United States ended in September 2025, effectively making EVs more expensive to buy and thus less appealing for Americans. Those who would have otherwise considered an EV – typically those on the left-leaning side of the political spectrum – may also be put off Tesla as a brand given Musk’s politics and his affiliation with Trump, despite the pair’s highly-publicised spats.

On this side of the pond, while Keir Starmer’s Labour Government has introduced the Electric Car Grant to make buying an EV more affordable, none of Tesla’s cars qualifies, making rival models more cost-effective. Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ announcement of a pay-per-mile tax coming in 2028 is also likely to have the effect of dissuading many prospective EV buyers in general.

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Regardless, Tesla’s announcement doesn’t come as too much of a surprise; just two days before it confirmed its official Q4 results, estimates from analysts forecast the poor performance. Despite this analysis causing a dip in stock price, this remains relatively high given investor confidence in the firm’s Robotaxi and AI operations, as well as the profitability of the company as a whole.

In the meantime, drivers may soon see some of these Robotaxis cropping up on UK streets, as self-driving Teslas are rumoured to be coming to London in 2026. Last summer, Tesla posted a video of a Model Y using the firm’s Full Self Driving (Assisted) software navigating the infamous Magic Roundabout in Swindon, suggesting the EV brand is prepping its autonomous fleet for the UK’s notoriously complex roads.

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