Tesla’s poor sales year means BYD is now the best-selling EV maker in the world – Jalopnik

Happy new year! It’s January 2, 2026 and this is The Morning Shift: your daily digest of the most important car news from around the world, in one place. Here are the top stories shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning’s edition, we look at Tesla’s ever-declining sales, and BYD taking its place as the world’s best-selling EV manufacturer. We’ll also look at how Norway is doing on the EV front, and Zeeker’s plans to sell to the Germans.

China’s BYD is set to overtake Elon Musk’s Tesla as the world’s biggest seller of electric vehicles (EVs), marking the first time it has surpassed its US rival in annual sales.

On Thursday, BYD said sales of its battery-powered cars rose nearly 28% last year to more than 2.25 million.

Tesla, which will announce its 2025 sales totals later on Friday, last week published analyst estimates that suggested it had sold about 1.65 million vehicles for the year as a whole.

But since that writing We have received Tesla’s figuresThey are slightly better than predicted by the BBC, but not by much: Tesla delivered 1,636,129 cars in 2025, a far cry from the 2.25 million EVs sold by BYD. BYD has technically beaten Tesla in sales before, but these numbers include PHEVs in addition to fully electric cars. Now BYD wins hands down: it sold more electric vehicles than Tesla, end of sentence.

Tesla registrations fell in some key European markets in December but rose in Norway, confirming a trend of record sales in Europe’s EV pioneer, while the US carmaker’s market share in the rest of the region eroded in 2025.

Elon Musk’s EV brand has seen declining sales in Europe since late 2024 due to growing competition, aging offerings and protests against Musk’s public praise of European right-wing political figures. The company is also expected to report a sharp drop in global fourth-quarter shipment numbers later on Friday.

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In France, Europe’s third-largest car market after Germany and Britain, Tesla registrations – a measure of sales – fell 66% to 1,942 vehicles last month, data from French bodybuilder PFA showed on Thursday.

Across France, registrations fell by 37% in 2025.

In Sweden, Tesla registrations fell by 71% to 821 vehicles in December, which would lead to a 70% drop by 2025, according to Mobility Sweden.

They also fell in Portugal and Spain, down 13% to 1,207 cars and 44% to 1,794 respectively, official data showed. For the whole of 2025, sales in Portugal fell by 22% and in Spain by 4%.

As we discussed above, Tesla’s own numbers paint a poor picture. Fourth-quarter shipments are down 15%, while full-year numbers are down 9%. But while Tesla, the company that builds and sells cars, seems to be doing worse and worse every day, Tesla stock is doing just fine. At the time of writing, shares of $TSLA are actually up today despite the bad sales news.

Almost all new cars registered in Norway last year were fully electric, official data showed on Friday, led by booming Tesla sales as the Scandinavian country consolidates its global lead in phasing out petrol and diesel vehicles.

Oil-producing Norway’s rapid switch to battery-powered vehicles is in stark contrast to the rest of Europe, where weak demand for electric vehicles prompted the European Union last month to reverse its planned ban on internal combustion engine cars by 2035.

Driven by tax incentives, 95.9% of all new cars registered in Norway in 2025 were electric vehicles, while that number was almost 98% in December. The annual figure was up from 88.9% in 2024, data from the Norwegian Road Federation (OFV) showed.

Norway is such an interesting case because you would expect such a major oil producer to do everything it can to get people into cars that use oil. However, it appears that the country’s pride in its natural beauty is winning, and electric vehicles are being heavily encouraged.

The operating cost caps are reshaping the German commercial vehicle market in a way that favors Chinese electric vehicle entrants over established European brands.

As fleet program bosses impose an upper limit of around €60,000 on company lease cars while mandating rapid electrification, employees who traditionally opt for an Audi or BMW are now faced with a choice: accept lower-spec European EVs or consider Chinese alternatives with better range and more features at the same price.

Geely-owned Zeekr is betting that these cost pressures will overcome German buyers’ historic preference for domestic brands. Unlike many Chinese rivals that have focused on private buyers or rental fleets, Zeekr is prioritizing the commercial vehicle market, especially higher-margin commercial vehicles.

I can honestly say that I don’t think anyone I know has ever owned a company car. Obviously I’ve heard of them, I know they exist, but I don’t think I’ve ever personally known anyone who has had one. It seems like they’re a much bigger deal in Germany, if car companies explicitly target them as a pricing strategy.

The oil embargo that led to these speed limits was abolished in March 1974, but the speed limits themselves remained in effect until 1987. Aren’t we lucky to live in the age of 80 miles per hour highways?