BYD’s Record Year: A Tale of Two Markets

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Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD has closed out 2025 by hitting its revised annual sales target of 4.6 million new energy vehicles (NEVs), yet the final month of the year revealed a stark divergence between its domestic and international performance. The company's shares traded in Hong Kong responded positively to the mixed report, climbing approximately 3.6%.

The automaker’s detailed production and delivery figures for December and the full year 2025 illustrate a significant transition. Growth is increasingly being fueled by overseas demand, compensating for a cooling home market.

Key Annual and Monthly Data:

• Full-Year 2025 NEV Sales: 4,602,436 units, representing a 7.73% year-over-year increase.
• December 2025 NEV Sales: 420,398 units.
• December Performance: Sales fell 18.34% compared to December 2024 and declined 12.45% from November 2025.
• December Production: 419,804 vehicles.
• December Exports: A record 133,172 vehicles, surging 133% year-over-year.

The annual breakdown further highlights the changing product mix and the explosive growth of the export business:
* Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs): Approximately 2.26 million units sold, up nearly 28%.
* Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs): Roughly 2.29 million units sold, down about 7.9%.
* Total 2025 Exports: 1.05 million vehicles, marking growth of over 150%.

Beyond vehicles, BYD continued expanding its energy storage segment, with total installed battery capacity reaching 285.634 GWh for the year.

Overtaking Tesla as Domestic Growth Cools

A landmark achievement in 2025 was BYD surpassing Tesla in annual pure electric vehicle sales. With 2.26 million BEVs delivered, it overtook its rival, as Tesla is projected to report around 1.65 million deliveries for the year, potentially reflecting a year-on-year decline.

However, BYD’s overall annual growth rate of 7.73% signals a pronounced slowdown in its core Chinese market, representing the company’s lowest yearly growth in five years. The sharp 18% drop in December domestic sales underscores the pressures of intense price competition and softening local demand.

This makes international expansion a critical counterbalance. BYD has become the leading EV brand in Southeast Asia, and its sales in the United Kingdom skyrocketed by 880% through September 2025. The strategic pivot abroad gains added urgency following CEO Wang Chuanfu’s own admission that the company’s technological lead has narrowed, necessitating a new wave of innovation.

The Road Ahead in 2026

Looking forward, a key question is whether BYD can maintain its blistering export pace in the face of potential tariffs and regulatory challenges. The company is accelerating its localization strategy, with a new plant in Szeged, Hungary, slated to begin production later in 2026.

Wang Chuanfu has promised a series of "major innovations" for the coming year aimed at reestablishing a clearer technological edge. The market’s positive reaction to the latest figures suggests the domestic slowdown was largely anticipated, with investors instead rewarding the successful global expansion and the symbolic overtaking of Tesla. The next crucial indicator will be the Q1 2026 sales numbers, which will reveal the stability of demand following December’s weakness.