BYD closed December with global passenger vehicle sales of 414,784 units, marking a slowdown of 18.6 per cent compared with the same month last year and a 12.7 per cent dip from November. It was the fourth straight month of year-on-year decline, reflecting a softer finish to the year in its home market. However, the
Sales outside China reached 133,172 units in December, more than doubling with a 133 per cent increase compared with the same period last year. This strong international push helped cushion weaker domestic demand and underlined BYD’s growing global footprint.
Breaking down December’s performance, BYD delivered 190,712 battery electric vehicles, down 8.2 per cent year on year. This marked the first annual decline in BEV sales in 2025 and only the third such drop in the past five years, following similar dips in February and July 2024. Plug-in hybrid vehicles accounted for 224,072 units, falling 25.7 per cent compared with December last year. This continued a worrying trend for PHEVs, with December being the ninth consecutive month of year-on-year decline since April.
BYD has been fully committed to electrification since April 2022, when it ended sales of internal combustion engine-only vehicles and focused entirely on BEVs and PHEVs. Over the full 2025 calendar year, the strategy still delivered growth, albeit at a much more measured pace than in previous years.
Total annual sales reached 4,550,036 vehicles in 2025, representing a 7.1 per cent increase from the 4,250,370 units sold in 2024. While this is a far cry from the explosive double- or triple-digit growth the company enjoyed earlier in the decade, it highlights a more mature phase of expansion.
Battery electric vehicles played an increasingly important role in that total. BEV sales climbed to 2,254,714 units for the year, up 27.9 per cent from 2024, while plug-in hybrid deliveries stood at 2,288,709 units, down 7.9 per cent year on year. As a result, BEVs accounted for 49.6 per cent of BYD’s total 2025 sales, nearly reaching parity with PHEVs at 50.4 per cent. This marked a clear shift from 2024, when fully electric models made up just 41.5 per cent of overall volume.
Perhaps the most striking achievement came from outside China. BYD’s overseas sales exceeded one million units for the first time, hitting 1,046,083 vehicles in 2025. That figure represents a massive 150.7 per cent increase compared with the previous year and confirms the brand’s transformation from a domestic giant into a serious global player, even as growth at home begins to cool.