WASHINGTON: Tesla&#39;s sales fell in 2025, the company reported Friday, ceding its position as the world&#39;s biggest electric vehicle maker for the year to Chinese auto giant BYD.&nbsp;The American company led by Elon Musk logged 418,227 deliveries in the final three months of the year, taking its full-year sales figure to around 1.64 million EVs.&nbsp;This marked a drop in sales of more than eight percent compared with 2024.&nbsp;A day prior, BYD said that it sold 2.26 million EVs last year.&nbsp;Analysts had expected Tesla&#39;s sales in the final quarter to slow less, to 449,000, according to a FactSet consensus.&nbsp;The pullback comes amid the elimination of a $7,500 US tax credit at the end of September 2025, with industry watchers noting it will take time for EV demand to rebalance.&nbsp;But even before then, Tesla had seen sales struggle in key markets over CEO Musk&#39;s political support of US President Donald Trump and other far-right politicians.&nbsp;Tesla has also been grappling with rising competition from BYD and other Chinese companies, and from European giants.&nbsp;Shenzhen-based BYD, which also produces hybrid cars, unveiled record EV sales in the past year on Thursday.&nbsp;Known as &quot;Biyadi&quot; in Chinese or by the English slogan &quot;Build Your Dreams&quot; BYD was founded in 1995 and originally specialized in battery manufacturing.&nbsp;The automotive juggernaut has come to dominate China&#39;s highly competitive market for new energy vehicles, a term used to describe various vehicles from fully electric ones to plug-in hybrids. China is the world&#39;s largest market for new energy vehicles.&nbsp;BYD is now looking to expand its presence overseas, as increasingly price-wary consumption patterns in China weigh on profitability.&nbsp;While BYD and other Chinese EV producers come up against hefty tariffs in the United States, the company&#39;s success is picking up in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and in Europe.&nbsp;Tesla only narrowly beat BYD in annual EV sales in 2024, with US company&#39;s 1.79 million outpacing the latter&#39;s 1.76 million.&nbsp;Nonetheless, Tesla shares ticked up in pre-market trading in New York on Friday.&nbsp;Dan Ives of Wedbush Securities noted that Tesla&#39;s quarterly sales figure remained much better than some had speculated.&nbsp;He flagged that the company faces a &quot;more difficult demand environment following the end of the EV tax credit while Europe remains a headwind to its deliveries.&quot;&nbsp;Ives noted that the company still sees challenges obtaining certain regulatory approval in Europe, with sales potentially rebounding once the regulatory hurdles are cleared.&nbsp;&quot;Sales around smaller and emerging markets have started to see larger growth metrics than expectations which look to offset the declines in key regions like China and Europe,&quot; he added.

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Tesla’s 2025 EV deliveries fell to about 1.64 million, dropping over 8 % and losing the global electric vehicle sales crown to China’s BYD, which sold 2.26 million, amid rising competition and declining US tax incentives.

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Tesla sales slip as it loses EV crown to China's BYD in 2025

Tesla sales slip as it loses EV crown to China's BYD in 2025