LOW ENERGY

Musk’s Tesla Faces a Historic Setback as Bitter Rival Surges

The richest man in the world looks certain to come in second place.

Elon Musk appears headed for a historic defeat as Tesla is poised to be overtaken for the first time on a calendar-year basis by Chinese auto giant BYD in global electric-vehicle sales. As the two rivals were expected to publish their final 2025 sales figures, BYD said in a statement on Thursday that sales of its battery-powered vehicles rose nearly 28 percent in 2025 to 2.26 million units. Tesla is expected to release its 2025 sales data later on Friday. Based on available sales data, BYD appears likely to overtake Tesla in official annual electric-vehicle sales, CNBC reported. On Monday, Tesla put together an average estimate projecting about 1.6 million vehicle deliveries for 2025, according to CNBC. That figure would represent a roughly 8 percent drop from 2024 and would put Tesla on track for its second consecutive annual decline. In a 2011 Bloomberg interview, Musk laughed off the idea of BYD as a serious rival, asking, “Have you seen their car?” He later said BYD’s products were not “particularly attractive” and that the technology was “not very strong.”