Tesla, once the top seller of electric vehicles, lost first place to China’s BYD after reporting annual vehicle-delivery declines for the second year in a row. Tesla sales were down 9% for all of 2025 and dropped 16% for the fourth quarter compared with a year prior.

Growing Chinese auto giant BYD stands poised to officially surpass Tesla as the world's biggest electric vehicle company in annual sales.

The Chinese carmaker said on Thursday that sales of its fully electric vehicles jumped by nearly 28% last year, topping 2.25 million worldwide.