Catenaa, Friday, January 02, 2026- BYD met its full-year sales target and likely surpassed Tesla to become the world’s largest electric-vehicle maker in 2025.
The Chinese EV giant’s Hong Kong-listed shares rose on the first day of trading in the new year, gaining as much as 2.3%.
BYD delivered a total of 4.6 million vehicles in 2025, representing a 7.7% increase from 2024. That’s in line with a lowered full-year goal the company gave in September.
The Shenzhen-based carmaker sold almost as many fully electric vehicles, 2.26 million, as it did plug-in hybrids.
Tesla on Friday is expected to report that it delivered around 440,900 vehicles in the fourth quarter, down 11% from a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
That would mean the company sold roughly 1.66 million cars for the year, its second consecutive annual drop.
BYD and its rivals face growing pressure in the coming year as China scales back some incentives supporting EV purchases. An influx of new models is also making domestic competition even fiercer, while trade barriers pose challenges for BYD’s ambitions to expand overseas.
China’s best-selling carmaker has faced stiffer competition in the past year from Geely Automobile Holdings and Xiaomi, whose new models and rapid innovations are winning over consumers.
BYD’s shares gained 7% last year, but gave up gains from an early rally that saw its shares jump as much as 74% by late May as tougher competition and increased regulatory scrutiny became more prominent.
A bright spot for BYD has been surging overseas sales. Deliveries outside China hit 1.05 million in 2025, exceeding the high-end estimate of 1 million sales, enabling it to offset the company’s decline in its core market.
