BYD surpasses Tesla and is now the world's leading electric car manufacturer

Chinese manufacturer BYD sold 2.26 million electric cars during 2025, far surpassing the 1.66 million electric cars that Tesla sold during the last twelve months across five continents.

Thanks to this historic sales result, BYD is now the world's leading manufacturer of electric cars, with sales growth of 28% compared to the previous year. And it shows a clear upward trend after a magnificent final quarter of 2025, registering 650,000 electric vehicles in the last three months of the year alone. Tesla, meanwhile, lost commercial piston with an 8.5% drop in sales compared to the previous year, marking its second year in commercial recession.

The reasons for Tesla's sales slump can be traced back to Elon Musk's controversial political ventures and a product range that, while established, is somewhat outdated and conservative, with a brand image that is becoming stale and no new models on the market. In fact, the Model Y, which was once the world's best-selling car, is beginning to show signs of commercial fatigue, and its sales are starting to decline in major global markets.

Tesla has suffered considerably from the sales slump in the European market, particularly in countries like Germany and Denmark, where it has lost between 50% and 80% of its market share. In Spain, Tesla experienced a 4.05% drop in sales, but this has marked the beginning of a worrying trend, as it closed December 2025 with a 44.23% decrease compared to the same month of the previous year.

Shift in global hegemony

BYD, for its part, is a manufacturer that has consistently introduced new electric cars at more affordable prices, with a more balanced commercial offering geared towards a true democratization of electric mobility thanks to vehicles like the BYD Dolphin Surf, on sale in our market for just over 18,000 euros, promotional discounts included.

BYD's extensive commercial offering has allowed it to adapt to the particularities of each regional market thanks to its diversification, and the control of production costs makes its products extraordinarily competitive on all five continents.

To this shift in global hegemony in electric vehicle production, we must add the fact that BYD vehicles cannot be freely marketed in the United States due to the Trump administration's trade tariffs, while Tesla manufactures and markets its cars freely in China.

Strong growth in the Spanish market

BYD's great commercial success in a market like Spain, which is still not fully mature for electric vehicles, has been its ability to adapt its product offering to the needs and preferences of buyers. For example, BYD became the leader in the plug-in hybrid segment in Spain in 2025 thanks to the Seal U, and achieved a virtual tie with Tesla in the electric vehicle segment during the last quarter of 2025 thanks to sales growth of the Dolphin, Dolphin Surf, and Seal.