Wang Chuanfu used to take other companies’ mobile phone batteries apart to see how they were made. In 1995, aged 29, he put that knowledge to work in Shenzhen. He trained as an engineer, borrowed start-up money from a relative, and began making phone batteries of his own. The company was BYD, which stands for “Build Your Dreams.”
The way he ran it set BYD apart from rivals such as Sony and Sanyo. Instead of buying expensive robotic assembly lines, CNN reported in 2009, BYD put people to work. Thousands of workers cost less than the machines, and by 2000 the firm was the biggest mobile phone battery maker in the world.
Into cars
In 2003 Wang bought a failing Chinese car company, and BYD was in the car business. By 2009 it was selling several models at home, among them a plug-in hybrid that cost less than the market-leading Toyota Prius. Warren Buffett had put $250 million into the company, and Wang said out loud that he wanted BYD to be the world’s biggest car maker by 2025.
He also had a line about quality. “Our products have never been recalled, unlike many of our competitors,” he told CNN, arguing that Chinese manufacturers could meet high standards if they set them.
The 2025 scoreboard
The Guardian reported on January 2, 2026 that BYD had overtaken Tesla as the world’s largest electric carmaker. BYD sold 2.26m battery electric cars in 2025. Tesla reported 1.63m deliveries for the same year. BYD’s pure-electric sales were up 28%, even with a weaker December. Tesla’s fell 9% on 2024, and its fourth quarter came in at 418,200, below analysts’ average forecast.
Count hybrids and the gap was already wide. BYD recorded 4.55m car sales overall in 2025. Plug-in hybrid sales slipped 8% to 2.29m. Commercial vehicles, meaning electric buses and lorries, more than doubled to 57,000.
The Guardian’s explanation for Tesla’s trouble: the withdrawal of EV subsidies by Donald Trump, who also removed emissions rules that had encouraged electric car production, plus a consumer backlash after Elon Musk embraced far-right politics at the end of 2024. BYD had beaten Tesla in single quarters before, but in 2025 its battery-electric output pulled away for the full year.
Musk has long claimed that autonomous capabilities will set Tesla apart, and it runs a limited robotaxi service in Austin, Texas. BYD has an answer there too: an offering called “God’s Eye,” now included even on its cheapest cars.
Sources
- China’s BYD overtakes Tesla as world’s biggest electric car seller
- Wang Chuanfu: Building electric dreams in China
