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New Delhi: For years, the global electric vehicle race sounded like a one-man show. Tesla was the face of EVs, the benchmark brand everyone compared numbers with, and the company many automakers feared or admired. But the story feels like it is changing now. China’s BYD is set to overtake Tesla as the world’s biggest seller of electric cars, and that marks a big turning point in the EV world.
Tesla always felt unbeatable for a long time. But BYD quietly kept selling, expanding, and pushing volumes, especially in China. Now the Chinese giant has announced that its pure electric car sales jumped about 28 percent last year, touching more than 2.25 million units, which is massive. Tesla, on the other hand, is expected to be around 1.65 million units, based on analyst estimates that the company shared before revealing official numbers.
This is the first time BYD looks all set to pass Tesla in annual EV sales. Tesla had a tough year with mixed acceptance of new models and rising competition from Chinese brands that are getting sharper, cheaper, and faster with launches. At one point, Tesla had to even introduce lower-priced versions of popular models in the US to push demand, something many fans never expected from such a confident brand.
Tesla has also been dealing with something unusual for a car company. There has been discomfort among some buyers linked to Elon Musk’s political involvement and public controversies. The company saw a slump in sales in early 2025 after backlash around Musk’s role in the then US President’s administration.
Tesla’s boss has one of the most pressure-filled jobs right now. The billionaire is expected to significantly grow Tesla’s sales and market value over the next decade to unlock his massive payout deal worth $1 trillion dollars which is roughly ₹90,00,000 crore in Indian value at $1 equals ₹90. That deal also ties him to ambitious goals including selling a million humanoid robots under its “Optimus” project and pushing self-driving robotaxis.
But Musk is also juggling too many things. Apart from Tesla, he is involved with SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), The Boring Company, and his government-linked role earlier, which some investors felt was distracting him from Tesla. Eventually, he promised to cut back involvement in government responsibilities, but the trust damage had already begun.
The global EV race now has a new front-runner, and it did not happen quietly. It happened with numbers that are hard to ignore.
