China’s BYD overtook Tesla as the world’s largest electric carmaker in 2025, after the US company run by Elon Musk reported a slump in deliveries at the end of the year.

Axar.az informs, citing Guardian, BYD sold 2.26m battery electric cars during the year, easily outstripping the 1.63m deliveries reported on Friday by Tesla for the same period.

The switch is a symbolic moment in the rise of China’s car companies, which have used the transition to electric cars to try to dominate the global automotive industry. Chinese car exports have risen in recent years, led by BYD and rivals such as the state-owned SAIC and Chery, which runs the Omoda and Jaecoo brands.

Electric car sales have continued to grow in the past two years, but the rate of growth has been slower than expected. Electric carmakers have been forced to cut prices aggressively, and governments around the world have rolled back targets on the shift away from petrol.

Tesla’s sales appear to have suffered in large part because of the withdrawal of electric vehicle (EV) subsidies by Donald Trump. The US president has also removed emissions regulations that incentivised electric car production. And Tesla also faced a backlash from some consumers after Musk’s embrace of far-right politics at the end of 2024.