China's BYD surpassed Tesla to become the world's largest electric vehicle (EV) seller for 2025. This milestone marks a significant rise for BYD, a company whose products Tesla CEO Elon Musk once mocked in a 2011 interview with Bloomberg.

In a statement released on 1/1, BYD announced its battery-electric vehicle sales surged nearly 28% to 2.26 million units.

BYD Seal in Vietnam. *Photo: Thanh Nhan*

A day later, Tesla reported 1.64 million vehicle deliveries in 2025, aligning with its projection of 1.6 million units. This figure represents an 8% decrease compared to 2024, marking the second consecutive annual decline for the US electric vehicle maker.

Deliveries in Q4 2025 were about 16% lower than the same period in 2024, when Musk's company reported 495,570 vehicles delivered.

Tesla experienced a turbulent year. The company's stock fell sharply in Q1 2025 due to fierce competition, particularly from Chinese EV manufacturers, and negative impacts on its reputation stemming from Musk's controversial political statements.

However, the stock price rebounded sharply in recent weeks, reaching a record high of $489.88 last month. This followed Musk's announcement that the company had been testing self-driving vehicles in Austin, Texas, without anyone inside, nearly 6 months after launching a pilot program with safety drivers.

On a positive note, the automaker revealed a record deployment of 14.2 GWh of energy storage products in Q4. This brought the total annual energy storage deployment to 46.7 GWh, a significant increase from 31.4 GWh deployed in 2024.

Meanwhile, BYD achieved combined sales of 4,537,356 vehicles in 2025, including plug-in hybrid vehicles and buses.

My Anh (according to CNBC)