Tesla loses spot as world’s top EV seller to Chinese rival after car deliveries plunge 9% in 2025

Tesla said its vehicle deliveries plunged 9% in 2025 – a worse-than-expected drop that knocked Elon Musk’s company out of its No. 1 spot among world’s EV sellers and handed it to a Chinese rival.

The electric automaker said Friday it recorded deliveries of 418,227 in the fourth quarter, down 16% from the same period last year.

In a consensus posted on its website on Dec. 29, Tesla said analysts were expecting a 15% drop to 422,850 vehicles. Wall Street had expected roughly 426,000 vehicles, per StreetAccount.

Its overall 2025 deliveries plunged 8.6% to 1.64 million – down from 1.79 million in 2024.

Tesla shares were off 0.4% at $447.77 in mid-morning trades on Friday.

Meanwhile, Chinese rival BYD said Thursday that sales of its battery-powered cars jumped nearly 28% to 2.26 million units – a stinging defeat after Musk years earlier dismissed the competitor and laughed at their products during a Bloomberg interview.

Tesla suffered a sales slump this year as it faced heated competition in the EV sector from BYD, South Korea’s Kia and Hyundai and European automaker Volkswagen.

Investors grew concerned about the company’s focus on artificial intelligence and robotics during earnings calls, instead of present-day opportunities. 

Musk’s brand also suffered blowback from his ties to the Trump administration, earlier this year leading the cost-slashing body known as DOGE – leading to massive federal layoffs and cutting billions in foreign aid.

Protesters swarmed Tesla showrooms across the country as Tesla vehicles across the country have been set ablaze with molotov cocktails or vandalized.

Tesla also experienced some brand damage in European markets after Musk endorsed Germany’s far-right party, AfD; signaled support for British anti-Muslim activist Tommy Robinson; and called for the European Union to be abolished.

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in a note Friday while Europe has been a “continuous headwind” for Tesla, he expects sales in the region to bounce back once the automaker’s Full Self-Driving technology is approved by European regulators.

In the first 11 months of 2025, Tesla’s European registrations plummeted 39% – while BYD saw registrations in Europe skyrocket 240% over the same period.

But Tesla’s deliveries rebounded to a record in the third quarter as American shoppers rushed to take advantage of a $7,500 federal tax incentive for EVs before it expired on Sept. 30.

The automaker also rolled out pared-back versions of its Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedan, each less than $40,000, which helped dull the effect of the tax incentive disappearing.

Despite poor results and mixed investor sentiment, Tesla shares ended 2025 roughly 16% higher. Musk bought $1 billion worth of shares in September.

Also on Friday, Tesla said it deployed 14.2 gigawatt hours of battery energy storage products in the fourth quarter, following a record of 12.5 gigawatt hours in the previous period.

Its battery energy systems include backup batteries for homes and larger systems for power-hungry data centers.

The automaker is slated to report its full fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 28.

In November, shareholders approved a jaw-dropping $1 trillion pay plan for Musk dependent on a series of lofty performance targets over the next decade – like delivering 20 million vehicles and 1 million “Optimus” humanoid robots. 

Musk threatened to leave the company if the historic pay package was shot down.