8:50 am, January 5, 2026
Tesla lost its crown as the world’s bestselling EV carmaker to Chinese rival BYD, as the American firm saw sales slide for a second year in a row.
On Friday (Jan 2), Tesla said it delivered 1.64 million vehicles in 2025, down 9% from a year earlier.
Chinese rival BYD, which sold 2.26 million vehicles last year, has now overtaken Tesla as the world’s best-selling EV carmaker.
For the fourth quarter, Tesla sales totalled 418,227, falling short of the 440,000 that analysts polled by FactSet expected. The sales total may likely have been impacted by the expiration of a 7,500-dollar (£5,568) tax credit that was phased out by the Trump administration at the end of September.
Even with multiple issues buffeting the company, the stock finished 2025 with a gain of approximately 11%, as investors hope Tesla chief executive Elon Musk can deliver on his ambitions to make Tesla a leader in robotaxi service and get consumers to embrace humanoid robots that can perform basic tasks in homes and offices.
The latest quarter was the first with sales of stripped-down ‘Standard’ versions of the Model Y and Model 3 that Musk unveiled in early October as part of an effort to revive sales.
The new Model Y Standard costs just under £42,000 while the Model 3 Standard isn’t on sale in the UK yet. These entry-level versions are expected to help Tesla compete with Chinese models in Europe and Asia.
For fourth-quarter earnings coming out in late January, analysts are expecting the company to post a 3% drop in sales and a nearly 40% drop in earnings per share, according to FactSet. Analysts expect the downward trend in sales and profits to eventually reverse itself as 2026 rolls along.
Musk has said that plunging car sales do not matter as much now because the future of the company lies more with his new driverless robotaxis service, the company’s energy storage business and building robots for the home and factory.
Meanwhile, in the UK, BYD finished 2025 by appointing its 125th dealership, up 73 on 2024. It now has 38 partners – 18 of which were new to the business in 2025.
Steve Beattie, deputy country manager of BYD UK, said: ‘It’s a huge achievement for us at BYD UK to hit 125 dealer locations in such a short space of time.
‘It really speaks of our desire to provide access to the world’s leading New Energy Vehicle manufacturer to as many customers as possible, and I’m massively proud of the team that put in all the hard work that made this happen.’
The Chinese carmaker has also made a string of new appointments in key areas of its business.
Ex-Auto Trader head of manufacturer/OEM Marcus Hazelwood joins BYD as head of retail sales, while three existing members have been promoted into new roles.
Claudio de Freitas has been promoted to head of fleet sales in the UK, Malcolm Fryer has become head of remarketing & fleet operations, and Thomas Brady takes ip the role of BYD UK’s network lead.
