BYD overtakes Tesla in Europe in terms of new registrations
A total of 7,231 electric cars from BYD were newly registered in Europe in April, according to JATO Dynamics. This was slightly more than Tesla’s new registrations, which totalled 7,165 units. “Although the difference between the monthly sales figures of the two brands may be small, the impact is huge. This is a turning point for the European car market, especially considering that Tesla has been leading the European BEV market for years, while BYD only officially started operations outside Norway and the Netherlands at the end of 2022,” says Felipe Munoz, Global Analyst at JATO Dynamics.
This means that Europe is now also experiencing a changing of the guard, which had already taken place on the global market: of around one million vehicles sold by BYD worldwide in the first quarter of 2025, over 416,000 units were fully electric. Tesla, on the other hand, only managed 337,000 deliveries, making it only the second-largest electric car manufacturer worldwide.
According to JATO Dynamics, Tesla suffered a 49 per cent drop in new registrations in Europe in April compared to the same period last year. In contrast, BYD recorded an increase of 359 per cent in the same period, which can be attributed to its broad and competitive range of all-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. If you look at BYD’s all-electric vehicles alone, growth was still 159 per cent.
BYD’s rapid expansion has already put the company ahead of the first traditional European brands, as JATO Dynamics emphasises: BYD was ahead of Fiat, Dacia and Seat in terms of new registrations in the UK in April, ahead of Fiat and Seat in France, ahead of Seat in Italy and ahead of Fiat in Spain, comparing all drive types together in each case. What’s more, BYD’s growth comes before the start of production at its new plant in Hungary and before the first deliveries of the BYD Dolphin Surf, a 20,000-euro electric car that has just been unveiled.
The report also offers interesting insights into other manufacturers and models: The new Skoda Elroq, for example, topped the ranking of BEV models in Europe for the first time with 7,998 new registrations, confirming the brand’s decision to introduce an SUV that sits between the B and C segments, as JATO Dynamics writes. Three Volkswagen models followed in the ranking, namely the ID.3, the ID.7 and the ID.4. The relatively new Kia EV3 made it to 5th place and the all-electric Renault 5 to 6th place.
With the Elroq, EV3 and R5, three of the six most popular vehicles have only come onto the market in the last few months. In contrast, at least some older models are struggling: sales of the Tesla Model Y fell by 53 per cent and those of the Volvo EX30 by 57 per cent.
Overall, 17 per cent of all new registrations in April 2025 were fully electric, compared to 13.4 per cent in April 2024. Plug-in hybrids also increased, from 6.9 to 9 per cent. This means that 26 per cent of all newly registered passenger cars in Europe had a plug in April.
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