Tesla outraces China’s BYD in pure electric car sales to regain world’s top spot
Posted by Recent_Duck_7640@reddit | cars | View on Reddit | 81 comments
PornoPaul@reddit
Honestly, I dont want to support Musk, but every time we've looked at EV it keeps going back to Tesla or Rivian- but Rivian is Hella expensive.
watduhdamhell@reddit
Lmao why?
There are literally a dozen better options imo. Anything from a legacy maker is better inside and out quality wise, even after their "improvements," to build quality, and it doesn't even have android auto or car play, a total deal breaker for me and lots of people.
The iX m60 for example would be better than any Tesla SUV on sale. If you need seven seats, that does make it tougher right now, but I would take an escalade IQ, EV9, or an EX90 before I considered a Tesla. Rivian is nice, but I'm not buying something that might take months to repair.
farrrtttttrrrrrrrrtr@reddit
Not in the slightest
HighHokie@reddit
Best overall package when you factor in everything from experience to value.
kingOofgames@reddit
Yeah wish we had more options at low end pricing. I am really hoping Toyota or some other company steps up with something better.
Madi473@reddit
Chevy bolt can be had for 10k-15k
farrrtttttrrrrrrrrtr@reddit
Bolt sucks massively
GlobalistCabal@reddit
Sure, but then you driving the EV version of an Altima.
MajesticBread9147@reddit
Hyundai and Kia are making more and more EVs, and you don't have to worry about the engine exploding like ICE Korean cars.
There's also lucid that I'm seeing more and more of lately.
Futt_Buckman@reddit
Hyundai have a problem with the iccu exploding so they kept that tradition alive
PristineReputation@reddit
I really hope they fix it, it's the thing keeping me from buying one
TheophrastBombast@reddit
Failing, sure. Not exploding.
BigJellyfish1906@reddit
Screw this artificial horse race bullshit. Tesla’s business is on a long and profound decline, and any variance in sales is not some sign that their systemic problems ceased to exist.
TheNorseHorseForce@reddit
I mean, down 1% last year and 8% last year... Every other year has been growth. That's not profound decline at all.
https://www.factorywarrantylist.com/tesla-worldwide-sales-revenue.html#:~:text=Tesla%20Worldwide%20Sales%20by%20Year,$14%2C010
I'm not a fan of Tesla myself, but give me a break. The numbers, economic output, and statistics say that Tesla is doing just fine, and is currently the #1 selling manufacturer in the world for BEVs.
BigJellyfish1906@reddit
What the hell kind of logic is that? “If you don’t include the most recent performance, they’re fine!”
Are you kidding? It’s musk’s conduct in the last year that’s killing their sales.
TheNorseHorseForce@reddit
I mean, Stellantis is the only of the big 3 to show growth this year so far.....
BigJellyfish1906@reddit
And? You’re ignoring why Tesla is having this problem. Their target buyers hate musk with a passion. Deflecting to other automakers doesn’t change that.
lazy_commander@reddit
Reddit is not representative of real life. If you spend time in the real world, you’ll realise that 99% of people don’t care about Elon Musk at all. They buy a Tesla because they like it, simple as.
BigJellyfish1906@reddit
Tesla sales say otherwise. Why speak up if you’re ignorant to basic facts?
TheNorseHorseForce@reddit
Do they though? They are the leading BEV manufacturer in the world
I think you're confusing "target buyers" with a group of people from one country who care. Their target audience is also in China, where they sell more BEVs than BYD. And in Scandinavia.
You are more than welcome to show evidence to the contrary.
BigJellyfish1906@reddit
For one quarter. And this isn’t a function of Tesla’s success. They’re floundering. Sales are way down in the US. They’ve basically lost Europe as a market. China is not far behind.
Read the OP. The reason they “took” the top spot from BYD for this one quarter, is because BYD’s state advantage expired. Tesla is resorting to desperate measures like 7+ year loans at interest rates at or below inflation. Anything to boost sales numbers so horse-race people like you have something to squawk about.
TheNorseHorseForce@reddit
France: 206% increase in sales in March 2026 compared to March last year
Italy: 32% increase in sales
Spain: 25% increase
Norway: 178% increase
Sweden: 144% increase
Denmark: 96% increase
Britain, US, Germany, Poland had a decrease.
This is also very much considered to become an "Amazon situation". Amazon loses money every quarter, but none of that matters because AWS makes money hand over first and subsidizes Amazon.com's losses.
Tesla's energy production and storage: approx. $6 billion per year
Non-vehicle battery sales: approx $13 billion per year
Supercharger Network: approx $3 billion per year
And all three categories are growing fast. This also does not include FSD software sales if Tesla chooses to sell
Basically, the data shows that sales have dipped slightly with huge gains in certain areas and dips in others. Non-car revenue streams are gaining fast year over year. Major investors are seeing Tesla as the leading battery production company going into the future, not the best electric automotive company.
Personally, I'm still not a fan of Tesla. But it looks like they're here to stay
BigJellyfish1906@reddit
You failed to provide the context that those increases were off of cratering sales. 5 is 500% increase over 1. See how important context is?
No, Tesla is not like Amazon. It is not ubiquitous. It is not vertically integrated, it is a hype stock. The worst example of it.
Your cherry-picked shilling response says otherwise.
TheNorseHorseForce@reddit
I do realize how important context is. This is why I referenced other manufacturers and how pretty much every other manufacturer has also seen a dip in sales. If Ford, Renault, Mercedes, GM, and Volkswagen were seeing declines in recent years, it would be safe to assume that Tesla would too.
You can toss out meaningless insults all you want. I will happily await the evidence that you are going to provide that Tesla is in a, as you said, "profound decline"
Have a great day!
BigJellyfish1906@reddit
You didn’t say what tesla’s sales increase was an increase from. A 200% improvement over dogshit is still shit.
Country 2024 Sales 2025 Sales % Change
UK 50,334 45,513 -9.6%
Norway 24,259 34,285 +41.3%
France 40,732 25,477 -37.5%
Germany 37,574 19,387 -48.4%
Netherlands 30,082 16,683 -44.5%
Spain 16,690 16,005 -4.1%
Italy 15,651 12,847 -17.9%
Belgium 21,182 9,933 -53.1%
Portugal 9,760 7,585 -22.3%
Denmark 16,032 9,457 -41.0%
Sweden 21,897 7,252 -66.9%
Switzerland 8,930 6,446 -27.8%
Austria 7,679 6,205 -19.2%
Poland 4,461 3,931 -11.9%
Finland 3,717 2,618 -29.6%
Other 17,009 11,698 -31.2%
Total 325,989 235,322 -27.8%
You’re a shill.
TheNorseHorseForce@reddit
For someone who won't buy a Tesla and doesn't particularly like the company, I'm a pretty bad shill then.
But hey, you think what you want, boss.
BigJellyfish1906@reddit
Darn those pesky facts!!
TheNorseHorseForce@reddit
I think the number that blows me away the most is how well they're doing in China. You'd think BYD and Geely would have a chokehold on that market
BigJellyfish1906@reddit
I already explained why. It’s not anything Tesla is doing. It’s what BYD is not doing now.
And Tesla is having to offer long- term loans with interest that’s lower than inflation to get these sales. Yet another reason why raw sales numbers are almost useless without context.
TheNorseHorseForce@reddit
I mean, you can go get the same 7-yr loan with an interest rate lower than inflation right now at two different Hyundai dealers and a Ford dealership in my metro area right now.
I'm agreeing with you that this is happening to Tesla. What I'm disagreeing with you on is that this is not just happening up Tesla.
Sales are struggling in nearly every market, not just automobiles.
BigJellyfish1906@reddit
You’re ignoring Tesla‘s abysmal 2025 because your local dealership is also desperate for any sales they can get...
TheNorseHorseForce@reddit
Also, totally random, but I've enjoyed our conversation, so I checked and saw you're into RC planes.
Do you have any recommendations for good entry level brands? Trying to plan out getting/building one for my dad (he was a USAF jet engine engineer), so likely a military plane.
TheNorseHorseForce@reddit
I mean, if an 8% decline is abysmal. Then that means a lot of things.
-2025 was the first year to reach/surpass pre-pandemic levels (2019)
-Volkswagen was down 2% overall
-Mercedes-Benz had a year almost as bad as Tesla, down 6%
-Stellantis and Subaru had bad years at -3% and -3.3%
And nearly every manufacturer is losing ground to BYD and Geely aside from Toyota
BigJellyfish1906@reddit
“If 8% is bad…” and then you detail everyone else doing nowhere near as bad as Tesla.
And I have you all the numbers. It’s way worse than 8% in Europe.
I’m done with you. You’re a Tesla-shilling troll and you won’t be able wasting any more of my time.
BigJellyfish1906@reddit
You didn’t say what tesla’s sales increase was an increase from. A 200% improvement over dogshit is still shit.
You’re a shill.
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Automatic-Eagle-1953@reddit
Teslas business has one central problem and it’s the guy at the top. Though, I suspect it’ll take the long overdue stock price correction for them to fire him.
Innocent-Bystander94@reddit
That guy at the top, like it or not, is keeping Teslas stock sky high, and still has the company in the number 1 EV manufacturing position. Not to mention the insane charging network he built.
As much as Reddit would have you believe, you don’t fall ass backwards into an $850 billion dollar networth by being a stupid dumbass. He’s not getting fired anytime soon.
MaybeNext-Monday@reddit
If they weren’t so overvalued it would barely even be a conversation, but their stock’s status as the de facto Elon Musk hype index makes the questions about their real value a lot more pressing
artytank@reddit
As an American, hell yeah.
Good competition is what I like to see in any market.
Innocent-Bystander94@reddit
Reddit won’t be happy about this
Alive_Internet@reddit
Reddit isn’t real life. Most Americans in real life are happy to see an American car company succeed.
kevinstu123@reddit
Just that trash bag is quite un american
Aranka_Szeretlek@reddit
Who said anything about the Americas?
Bderken@reddit
I want to see them succeed
Cleenred@reddit
I mean people with common sense really. You have to be a special kind of individual to not hate Nazis.
Paulbo83@reddit
Your car makes this comment very funny
deleted_by_reddit@reddit
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ScienceGuy722@reddit
How do you expect people to be able to post to a restricted sub?
snoo-boop@reddit
45% upvoted
retirednavyguy@reddit
Reddit sanctimonious circle jerk hivemind is undefeated
Boundish91@reddit
I do not understand the appeal.
Have driven both the S, Y and 3. They were perfectly okay cars, but nothing special. I preferred the S out of the three.
HighHokie@reddit
They are incredibly easy cars to live with, the most polished software and are very price competitive.
ThatGuyFromCanadia@reddit
Exactly, it’s the perfect NPC car
General-Bend1129@reddit
Cherrypicking the news again. Next month they will be down 50%. The month after that another 50 and then up 15. All fine as long as the spiraal is downwards.
ouroboros_quetzal@reddit
Well, we can’t even buy BYD in the US, so this metric is irrelevant when they’re not competing on the same meaningful markets.
Teslas are overpriced POS, they feel and drive how most people imagine Chinese cars would, but ironically, the Chinese brands seem like a much better value and better built
davejugs01@reddit
Huh?
dinkygoat@reddit
you wut bruv. If you look at BYD's pricing of the Sealion 7 vs Model Y, and Seal vs Model 3, adjusted for content, in western markets, fairly similar. If Teslas are overpriced, so are BYDs.
TunerJoe@reddit
BYD is really only not sold in the US. Pretty much everywhere else in the world, Tesla and BYD compete against each other
CMDR_omnicognate@reddit
Presumably because a lot of them are made in China, they benefit from similarly really low production costs so can be as cheap as a lot of the other Chinese EV’s.
Afak one of the main reasons a lot of more traditional western/japanese/korean cars don’t do to well over there is they cost an absolute fortune, so only really luxury cars sell well there because they’re already monstrously expensive.
kbplaya9@reddit
Wish we could buy here in the states .the metrics wouldn’t even be close ..
ouroboros_quetzal@reddit
Well, we can’t even buy BYD in the US, so this metric is irrelevant when they’re not competing on the same meaningful markets.
Teslas are overpriced POS, they feel and drive how most people imagine Chinese cars would, but ironically, the Chinese brands seem like a much better value and better built
Cloudsareinmyhead@reddit
Meanwhile, they're sitting on an inventory of 50,000 unsold cars.
TheNorseHorseForce@reddit
Which is an incredibly low number when you look at scale.
xkemex@reddit
Cry harder
Recent_Duck_7640@reddit (OP)
That's... fairly standard, about 2 weeks of production. How many cars is Ford, GM, VW, etc sitting on? Hint: It's a lot more
MattDaaaaaaaaamon@reddit
The metric you're looking for isn't total inventory; it's the days to sell. Tesla on average sells faster than the market average, in some cases twice as fast. On average, carmakers want to sell a car from off the line to in the customers hands in about 45-60 days. They want to maintain inventory to ensure they don't fall too far below that which limits sales opportunities, but also not to exceed it which indicates slowing demand. Tesla has consistently been well below the target, so they keep production ramped up to meet the high demand.
SwayingTreeGT@reddit
Across nearly 1400 stores worldwide, that’s 36 cars per store on average. Isn’t that low?
Guac_in_my_rarri@reddit
Depends on how many days the cars sit.sild before 39 days is the goal.
PurchaseVisible3426@reddit
Put the other competition up too and see the whole picture
bockers007@reddit
lol redditors gonna be back at Tesla diner again. 😂
Low-Umpire236@reddit
Can they outpace Toyota for reliability over 30 years?
hi_im_bored13@reddit
are tesla's known to be all that unreliable drivetrain wise?
not sure about feature wise but they also come far better equipped than the average toyota i imagine, especially internationally
NotPumba420@reddit
In German official TUV statistics the Model 3 and Y are the most unreliable cars of hundreds of models
hi_im_bored13@reddit
yeah they like treating control arms as consumables, at some point i'm pretty sure they started silently doing free replacements
is brakes just due to regen braking? can't imagine the disks are getting enough use to cause any concerns
iHaveLotsofCats94@reddit
A lot of the issue with EVs comes from software and general fit and finish. My personal experience is that you don't usually see failure in powertrain components, which have a 10/100k warranty anyway. Others may vary, but that's the case with the company I work for. I once had a rear drive unit failure on a mach e, but that was the only mechanical failure I saw.
Again, that's just my experience
hi_im_bored13@reddit
Tesla is up there if not the best in software, they used to be some of the worst in qc but from what I've heard & seen the build quality is massively improved w/ the recent refreshed cars
I just find it weird they're criticizing Tesla's reliability when its generally one of their strong points especially in the EV space vs Mach E's & particularly Ioniq ICCU issues, especially when theres so much valid to criticize w/ Tesla lol
Recent_Duck_7640@reddit (OP)
Most likely, Toyota isn't very reliable these days
04limited@reddit
Boss idk if these new Toyotas will last 30 years either
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