Tesla outraces China’s BYD in pure electric car sales to regain world’s top spot

Drivers charge their vehicles at a Tesla supercharger station.

Photo: TNS Tesla has regained the global pure electric vehicle (EV) crown for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2024, after its deliveries rose 6.5 per cent year on year in the three months ending March.

The modest increase was enough for the US carmaker to beat China’s EV king BYD, which posted a 25.5 per cent drop in sales during the first quarter of 2026.

Tesla’s deliveries worldwide between January and March hit 358,023 units, it said in a statement on Thursday.

Tesla builds only pure electric cars or battery electric vehicles (BEVs).

BYD assembles both BEVs and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

The Shenzhen-based carmaker’s BEV sales in the first quarter stood at 310,389 units. “BYD suffered a setback in the domestic market as it is the company’s major source of growth,” said Gao Shen, an independent analyst in Shanghai. “Tesla remains relatively stable, banking on a large base of customers around the world.” BYD beat Tesla for the first time in pure electric car deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Photo: EPA Tesla and BYD have been locked in a battle for the title of the world’s largest BEV maker since mid-2023.

BYD beat Tesla for the first time in pure electric car deliveries in the fourth quarter of that year.

Reduced government support in mainland China, where new EV sales accounted for about 70 per cent of the global total in 2025, caused a plunge in deliveries from January to February.

Under Beijing’s new EV trade-in subsidy scheme that took effect on January 1, buyers replacing an existing car get a subsidy equivalent to 12 per cent of the new car’s price, capped at 20,000 yuan (US$2,905).

In the past two years, they received a 20,000 yuan subsidy regardless of price.

The phase-out of a sales tax holiday also dented consumers’ buying interest in EVs.

Chinese EV buyers were exempt from the country’s 10 per cent vehicle sales tax last year, but are now paying a 5 per cent levy as Beijing gradually phases out the incentive.

Under the new policies, a buyer of a 100,000 yuan electric car receives 8,000 yuan less in subsidies while paying an extra 5,000 yuan tax for owning it.

BYD, benefiting from fresh local government EV subsidies and higher fuel bills due to the Middle East crisis, reported a 57.9 per cent sales jump in March from February, reaching 300,222 units.

Deliveries from Tesla’s Gigafactory in Shanghai climbed 46.2 per cent from February to 85,670 units l

原文链接: 南华早报