Jan. 2 (UPI) — Chinese electric car maker BYD surpassed Tesla in annual sales in 2025.
BYD said it sold 2.26 million battery electric vehicles in 2025, a boost of 28% year over year, the company said in a statement Thursday. BYD’s total deliveries from BEVs and plug-in hybrids were about 4.6 million vehicles.
Tesla sold 1.64 million vehicles in 2025, which is about an 8% decline from 2024, the company announced Friday. It’s the company’s second-straight annual drop.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk once laughed at BYD cars in an interview on Bloomberg TV in 2011. He said, «I don’t think they have a great product,» CNBC reported Musk said.
Musk spent the first half of 2025 working for the federal government in the administration of President Donald Trump as the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency. He left in May amid a fight with Trump.
In November, Tesla shareholders approved a new pay package for Musk.The firm said 75% of shareholders with voting rights backed Musk’s 10-year pay deal, which could net him $1 trillion over that time by boosting his stake in Tesla by more than 423 million shares.
Though shares dropped significantly in the first quarter of 2025, they are back on track with an all-time closing high of $489.88 last month, after Musk said it had been testing driverless vehicles in Austin, Texas.
