BYD is eating Tesla’s lunch while headlines talk about “slowing growth”
Reports that Chinese EV manufacturer BYD posted its weakest sales growth in five years have glossed over a far more consequential reality.
The company has quietly overtaken Tesla in the global EV race and has risen to become one of the world’s six largest automakers.
Reuters reported last week that BYD’s sales growth slowed in its home market of China amid intensifying competition in the EV sector.
While that is accurate, the headline obscures the company’s scale and momentum.
BYD sold roughly 2.2 million battery-electric vehicles last year, comfortably surpassing Tesla’s approximately 1.7 million deliveries and cementing its position as the world’s largest pure EV maker.
When plug-in hybrids are included, BYD’s total vehicle sales climbed to nearly 4.6 million units in 2025.
About one million of those vehicles were sold outside China, underscoring the company’s accelerating global expansion, according to analyst S.K. Kanthan.
Despite the headlines, BYD’s share price rallied sharply following its latest vehicle delivery report, climbing more than 5% on Friday.
The stock, however, remains an underperformer in over-the-counter markets, up just 12% over the past year, weighed down by limited liquidity and geopolitical risk.
Investors remain cautious toward U.S.-listed Chinese stocks rather than company-specific issues.
EV competition intensifies in China
BYD has been able to surpass Tesla in China by leveraging scale, aggressive pricing, and deep vertical integration.
The company produces many of its own key components, including batteries, allowing it to operate with lower costs and faster product cycles than most rivals.
A broad lineup that spans both battery-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids has also helped BYD capture demand across multiple price segments, cementing its position as China’s largest EV maker.
That said, competition in China’s EV market continues to intensify.
Several smaller rivals are beginning to chip away at BYD’s market share, highlighting both rising consumer appetite for EVs and growing pressure across the sector.
As CNBC reported, startups offering more affordable EV models are gaining traction. Xpeng posted a sharp increase in deliveries, reaching 429,445 vehicles for 2025 — up 126% from a year earlier.
Leapmotor emerged as one of the fastest-growing players, delivering 596,555 vehicles, and is on track to reach 1 million annual deliveries in 2026.
Nio also reported solid results, with strong growth pushing annual deliveries to 326,028 vehicles.
The update followed positive developments last week, when police agencies in China’s Sichuan province selected Nio’s ONVO L90 for their vehicle fleets.