BYD surpassed Tesla to become the world's largest electric vehicle manufacturer in 2025

The Chinese automaker BYD sold 4.6 million vehicles worldwide in 2025, including 2.3 million fully electric vehicles and the same number of plug-in hybrids, writes Bloomberg.

This means that the company has become the world's largest electric vehicle manufacturer for the first time, while the previous leader, Elon Musk's American company Tesla, has ended the year with a decline in sales for the second year in a row. According to preliminary estimates, it sold about 1.6 million electric vehicles.

The New Year may prove to be more challenging for BYD.

The CEO of BYD, Wang Chuanfu, acknowledged at a meeting with investors in early December that the technological advantage the company had for several years has diminished, affecting sales in the domestic market.

BYD has begun facing competition from Geely and Xiaomi, which is why BYD is gradually focusing on international growth.

In 2025, BYD's deliveries outside China reached 1.05 million vehicles, exceeding the upper estimate of the forecast of 1 million and allowing to offset the decline in the Chinese market.

• In the last months of 2025 BYD has become the sales leader in Ukraine for the first time.