Those reporting BYD overtook Tesla as top global electric vehicle maker are wrong
In the past few weeks, major news outlets have reported that Chinese automotive giant BYD has overtaken Tesla as the world’s largest seller of electric vehicles. While it may be true that BYD has usurped Tesla to sell more electric vehicles or generate more revenue, the idea that either is the largest EV seller in the world completely ignores a company that sells more EVs each year than both Tesla and BYD combined.
Those EVs just have half the wheels.
I’m talking, of course, about the real global leader in electric vehicle sales: Yadea, a company that builds electric two-wheelers and three-wheelers, outselling by a long shot Tesla and BYD combined.
Of course part of this argument is semantical, and it also depends on how you definite the world’s largest seller. Many recent articles about BYD overtaking Tesla refer to BYD’s 2024 annual revenue, which eclipsed Tesla’s for the same period. To be fair, that feat is even more impressive considering Tesla enjoys a relatively large sales volume in BYD’s domestic market of China, whereas BYD is prevented from selling in Tesla’s domestic market of the US, one of the largest global automotive markets.
While Yadea can’t compete with overall revenue due to its vehicles being much more affordable, that’s kind of the point. Yadea sells as many EVs in a quarter as Tesla and BYD do in a year, and for much more affordable prices.
In fact, Yadea’s recent announcement of surpassing 100 million cumulative electric two-wheelers sold globally puts both automakers’ figures in perspective. On an annual basis, Yadea consistently sells more than 6-8 million electric scooters, bicycles, and motorcycles, comfortably surpassing the combined annual sales of Tesla and BYD.
Why, then, does the media often ignore Yadea when crowning the king of EV sales? Simply put, there’s still an automotive bias that sees cars as “real” vehicles and treats two-wheelers as a side note. It’s understandable, and even my own well-meaning colleagues here at Electrek can occasionally be guilty of it. But this attitude misses an essential point: For millions of people worldwide, especially in densely populated urban centers throughout Asia and increasingly in Europe and North America, an electric scooter or bicycle isn’t just a real vehicle – it’s often the most sensible, efficient, and affordable choice.
Two-wheeled electric vehicles offer numerous practical advantages over cars. They’re dramatically more energy-efficient, cheaper to buy, cheaper to run, easier to maintain, and fit seamlessly into urban lifestyles where space is limited and traffic congestion is the norm. Electric scooters and bikes aren’t just vehicles; they’re solutions to pressing urban issues like air pollution, traffic congestion, and affordability. Most young urban commuters can’t afford a new Tesla, nor can they charge its battery in the living room of their fifth-floor apartment. But a typical e-bike or e-scooter solves both of those problems, bringing affordability and convenience to the electric vehicle market.
Moreover, Yadea reaching the incredible milestone of 100 million electric vehicle sales highlights the sheer scale and impact of electric two-wheelers globally. And that’s just one company. For comparison, Tesla recently celebrated surpassing just over 7 million total vehicles, and BYD, despite its rapid growth, is still far behind Yadea in cumulative units delivered.
The takeaway here is clear: Let’s not get caught up in automotive tunnel vision. If we truly care about electrification and sustainability, it’s vital to recognize that the global electric vehicle market is bigger – and more diverse – than cars alone. Companies like Yadea aren’t just quietly outselling Tesla and BYD; they’re providing practical mobility solutions that might just be the “better” electric vehicles that millions of people actually need.
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Elon Musk went on an all-day Tesla self-driving propaganda spree ahead of the company’s earnings, which are expected to be rough.
It’s well known these days that Musk doesn’t often comment on Tesla as he is busy with his government work, buying elections, and running several private companies.
Some Tesla shareholders argue that the CEO is neglecting the public company, which saw its stock tumble this year.
That wasn’t the case today.
Musk went on a tweeting spree about Tesla, specifically about Tesla’s self-driving effort.
Here are some of the highlights:
Tesla posted that “one day” its vehicles will drive themselves from the factory to new customers and Musk couldn’t stop himself and had to say that it will happen “this year”:
Like most of Musk’s self-driving comments, this one is hard to take seriously since he said the exact same thing in 2018 and claimed it would happen in 2019.
The tweet he was responding to has been deleted by the author, but it asked when Tesla vehicles would drive themselves to customers:
Spoiler alert: regulators are not the bottleneck here.
Musk then claimed that “Tesla self-driving will be far safer than human driving”:
The problem here is that Musk has claimed on many occasions that Tesla’s FSD is already safer than humans, like in 2023: “Supervised FSD is vastly safer than human driving.”
There’s no data that supports that. Tesla refuses to share any data regarding its self-driving program and instead, the company shares a very misleading quarterly “safety report.”
Considering Tesla’s FSD requires supervision from a driver at all times, the driver’s supervision and attention help reduce accidents that the self-driving system wouldn’t necessarily prevent.
Musk also shared positive experiences of a few Tesla owners, including a Tesla engineer and Joe Rogan:
As we often highlight, Tesla’s FSD can be impressive to use, but the problem is when you compare it to its promise, which is in the name: full self-driving.
Under its current form, FSD is still a level 2 advanced driver assist system, and not self-driving, but Musk said that it would become truly “unsupervised” self-driving every year for the last 8 years.
Therefore, it’s not what Musk has been promising buyers for years and as for when it is coming, he has been consistently wrong and has asked owners to rely on anecdotal experiences as Tesla refuses to release any data.
We previously reported that Musk has twice positively referred to a crowdsourced Tesla FSD dataset that shows Tesla’s FSD v13 on HW4 is achieving fewer than 500 miles between critical disengagements.
Tesla has previously stated that FSD must achieve 700,000 miles between critical disengagements to be safer than humans.
The spree of Tesla FSD tweets comes as Tesla is preparing to report its Q1 2025 earnings next week, which should be difficult after the automaker reported its lowest delivery results in three years.
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Texas is No. 1 in the US for wind and solar capacity, but the Texas Senate just passed a bill that aims to kneecap clean energy with an industry-killing review process. Will the Texas House pass it, too?
The Texas Senate today passed SB 819, which creates new restrictions on the development of wind and solar energy under the guise of “protecting” wildlife. The restrictions don’t apply to any other forms of energy.
Texas uses an extraordinary amount of power, and renewables play a big part in supplying that power. The Texas Tribune reported in March that “ERCOT [the Texas grid] predicts that Texas’ energy demand will nearly double by 2030, with power supply projected to fall short of peak demand in a worst-case scenario beginning in summer 2026.” That’s because of extreme weather, population growth, and crypto-mining facilities.
As of February, Texas increased its energy supply by 35% over the last four years, and 92% of that supply came from solar, wind, and battery storage.
Solar is the largest source of energy generating capacity that has been added to the Texas grid. That’s because it’s cost-effective and it can be deployed quickly. So if new solar projects are kneecapped, power demand will outstrip supply in the Lone Star State.
Daniel Giese, Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA)’s Texas director of state affairs, stated after the Senate’s vote, “With energy demand rising fast, Texas needs every megawatt it can generate to keep the lights on and our economy strong. We cannot afford to turn away from the pro-energy and pro-business policies that made the Lone Star State the energy capital, but that’s exactly what SB 819 does. We urge the Texas House to reject this bill.”
Less clean energy would also jack up electricity bills for Texans, and rural areas would lose billions in landowner revenue and tax payments. Every time a wind farm or solar farm is installed on rural land, it brings a lot of money to the community that surrounds it. A January report estimated that existing and planned solar, wind, and battery storage projects will contribute $20 billion in local tax revenue and $29.5 billion in landowner payments.
What’s especially baffling about this bill is that it flies in the face of a core Texas value – keeping the government out of private property decisions – yet it does precisely the opposite.
Environment Texas executive director Luke Metzger issued the following response: ‘By making it much more difficult to build wind and solar energy in Texas, this bill threatens to increase pollution, increase blackouts and increase our electric bills.
“Under the guise of helping land and wildlife, SB 819 would create a discriminatory and capricious permitting standard that could grind renewable energy development to a halt.
“We urge the House of Representatives to reject this bill and instead support policies that promote a cleaner, more sustainable energy future for all Texans.”
It will come as no surprise to regular readers that I find this bill ludicrously masochistic. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, and please keep it civil.
Read more: A vast 600 MW Texas solar farm just hit a major milestone [update]
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