BYD surpassed Tesla in 2025 global sales but the real winner is actually Kia

In a year that saw the gloves come off in the race for global EV dominance between China and America, BYD landed a knockout punch to beat Tesla in 2025 global sales, but the real winner of the year is Korean-born Kia.

It’s been a wild 2025 for the car industry, as we saw the biggest spike in EV sales ever, until it completely flatlined in the last quarter due to the end of the tax credit line.

Many companies have swapped places on the sales leaderboard, with some capitalizing on the mass EV surge, while others have played the patient game and opted for high-quality HEVs to launch in 2026.

But the numbers are now in, and BYD has overthrown Tesla, while KIA has found winning margins across the board.

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BYD takes the spoils as the global sales winner in 2025

With an affordable fleet of EVs that have undercut its rivals without compromising quality, BYD has made huge waves in the EV industry this year.

Having launched waves of its fresh-faced models, the Chinese brand found major success in Europe, first becoming the best-selling brand in the UK with an 880 percent increase in sales.

Then, the brand continued to surge in Europe, while Tesla’s market share plummeted.

Despite the American brand maintaining its monopoly in the US, BYD won by such a landslide around the rest of the world that the brand came out on top as the best-selling carmaker in the world in 2025.

It wasn’t all doom and gloom for Tesla, as it actually smashed its sales records in Q3, particularly, debunking any idea that it was struggling.

The brand grew, thanks to the popularity of the Model Y and Model 3.

Just BYD grew more. Much more.

While these titans will gear up to go again in 2026, a different brand has put itself in contention to be a global powerhouse again: KIA.

Kia finds small but major wins to set up a big 2026

Not pouring all of its eggs into the short-term EV basket, KIA has enjoyed a massive year, with models like the Carnival making headway to dominate niche parts of the market, such as the minivan genre.

The KIA EV3 came out in 2025 with its awards too, being crowned as the ‘World car of the Year‘, while its PV5 van set records for the longest max-payload distance covered on one single battery charge.

Sales increased significantly for KIA throughout 2025, and while it’s still some way from rivaling the titans of BYD and Tesla, the Korean brand has set itself up superbly to take on 2026 and become the leading maker in areas the two heavyweights have neglected.

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