Tesla's fourth-quarter delivery volume was 418,227 vehicles, falling short of expectations and significantly lagging behind BYD for the entire year

Tesla's car sales fell by 8.6% last year, significantly trailing behind China's BYD in the global electric vehicle manufacturer rankings.

In a statement released on Friday, Tesla reported that fourth-quarter deliveries decreased by 16% year-on-year to 418,227 vehicles, compared to an estimate of 440,907 vehicles. Tesla's fourth-quarter deliveries fell short of analyst expectations surveyed by the media and the company's own targets.

In contrast, BYD achieved growth in both fourth-quarter and annual battery electric vehicle sales, with nearly 2.26 million electric vehicles delivered for the year, compared to Tesla's 1.64 million.

Musk has shifted attention away from Tesla's declining sales by heavily promoting the progress of its long-anticipated robotaxi business. However, despite the company starting autonomous driving tests at the end of the year, consumers can currently only hail rides from a limited number of vehicles in Austin, Texas, and the San Francisco Bay Area, with safety supervisors still present in the front seats.

BYD further widened the gap with Tesla last year. Previously, in 2024, BYD was only slightly behind Tesla in overall performance. Although BYD's deliveries of pure electric vehicles in the fourth quarter exceeded those of Tesla, Tesla still maintained a slight lead in total annual figures. Additionally, BYD has sold over 2 million plug-in hybrid vehicles each year for the past two years.

Wall Street's skepticism regarding Tesla's sales outlook for 2026 continues to deepen. Two years ago, analysts predicted that Tesla's deliveries would exceed 3 million, but the current average forecast has been significantly revised down to about 1.8 million.

At the end of the year, Tesla sought to boost market expectations by promoting the Cybercab, a two-seat compact model with butterfly doors. The prototype, first showcased by Musk at the end of 2024, lacks a steering wheel and pedals, but Tesla's board chair Robyn Denholm stated in an October media interview that the company would equip these components in production models if required by regulators.

On Friday, Tesla's stock price rose by 1.5% in pre-market trading, recovering after six consecutive days of decline in the last few trading days of 2025. The stock rose 11% over the entire year