Chinese electric carmaker BYD finally got its annual beat of Tesla in the electric car market, which is neither that surprising nor even that interesting. Both Tesla and BYD had worse years than they projected, and both face some serious hurdles in the new year.
Not like they’re alone. While Rivian met its expectations for the quarter, those expectations were lower than Q3 by a large margin. Rolls-Royce, once a brand that was promoting EVs, is shifting focus back to milking as much as possible from its customers with fancy features and V12s.
You know who is killing it right now? Kia. Specifically, Kia is killing it with minivans. The Morning Dump is a pro-van organization, so it’s nice to see that happening.
BYD Thumps Tesla
It was clear as late as Q4 of 2024 that, unless something dramatically changed, Tesla was going to finally give up its EV sales crown to Chinese automaker BYD this year. While Tesla sells cars pretty much everywhere, including in China, that advantage was only going to last so long. BYD has long made more cars and more “electrified” vehicles thanks to its large stable of PHEVs, but hasn’t quite been able to put together a full calendar year of higher pure BEV sales.
The total numbers are in, and Tesla sales dropped about 8.6% to 1.64 million global sales, compared to 2.26 million for BYD. In Q4, Tesla put out its own weird public estimate of quarterly sales. Some thought this was because it wanted to set a lower number that it could beat, but it couldn’t even top its own diminished target. There is an argument out there that comparing Tesla and BYD sort of misses the point, and I accept that there are big differences, but it’s still notable.
A big drop came in Europe, where, other than in Norway, people don’t seem to be that jazzed about buying Teslas. Here’s Bloomberg with an explanation:
Demand for Teslas slumped across most of Europe throughout last year, in part due to blowback over Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk throwing his support behind right-wing politicians and parties in countries including Germany and the UK. While the CEO has predicted sales will improve once Tesla is able to offer the driver-assistance system Tesla markets as Full Self-Driving, or FSD, the company has yet to obtain regulatory approval from authorities in the region.
Most notable is that, unlike the United States, EV sales in the EU were up about 28% for the year, whereas Tesla sales dropped by roughly the same amount. Not great.
Would you rather be BYD? Ehhh… not really. The company has the same massive overcapacity issues that other Chinese automakers have, was clearly juicing its sales with zero-mileage used car schemes, and is only surviving the country’s brutal price war because it’s the biggest. The company just dropped a ton of cars in Mexico to get ahead of tariffs there, but that was supposed to be a big export market, and now it’s less clear how competitive it’ll be.
If BYD has an advantage, it’s in Europe, because most Europeans seem to be willing to buy a cheaper car from a Chinese brand than a more expensive one from Tesla/Musk. Except Norway. Norway DGAF.
Rivian Did Fine, It Was Fine
Rivian also saw a decline in Q4 sales, but it was about what the company had expected, so that’s something, I suppose.
Per the WSJ:
The company said it produced 10,974 vehicles at its manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois and delivered 9,745 vehicles during the fourth quarter of 2025. That is down from 12,727 vehicles produced and 14,183 delivered in the fourth quarter of 2024.
For the entirety of 2025, the company produced 42,284 cars and delivered 42,247. In 2024, the company totaled 49,476 vehicles produced and 51,579 delivered.
The R2 and R3 really can’t come fast enough.
Rolls-Royce Has An EV If You Want It, But If You Have The Money, You Want The V12
The irony of the ultra-wealthy not buying EVs is that the ultra-wealthy, generally, have so many cars that range anxiety couldn’t possibly be an issue for most of them.
While the EV Rolls-Royce Spectre has done well enough, what the people really want is apparently V12s, at least according to this Bloomberg article:
In an interview at Rolls-Royce’s Goodwood base, Chief Executive Officer Chris Brownridge said the brand would cater to what buyers want – all while ramping up customizations, including putting more resources into a global network of private offices for one-on-one client meetings.
“We will launch more electric-powered Rolls-Royces, but they’re Rolls-Royces first,” said Brownridge. “We see very strong demand for V12 — where the client demand continues for that engine, we will continue to produce Rolls-Royces as well.”
It’s cool that RR builds an EV coupe, as there are too few of those.
In addition to more V12s, the company is also doubling down on customization, which allows RR to grab bigger and bigger margins.
The Success Of The Carnival Shows Some People Have Taste
It’s fairly obvious that I like the Kia Carnival, which isn’t the best minivan in every way, but has enough going for it to make it extremely appealing. It’s probably going to be the Kia vehicle that grew the most in sales in 2025, having already grown nearly 50% through November.
While Kia dealers are worried about having too much inventory in certain areas next year, that doesn’t include the Carnival, according to this Automotive News interview with Jeffrey Hinchliff, the head of Kia’s dealer advisory council:
The Kia Sorento was the only model “that really probably got over its skis this year” in 2025 with oversupply in both his Omaha market and nationally — but it was simply a victim of the Telluride’s success, Hinchcliff said.
“It’s not that Kia is losing the business; it’s just those customers are buying Tellurides,” he said.
[…]
Conversely, both his store and dealers nationally in 2025 at times found themselves with too few Kia Carnival minivans, he said.
“Carnival’s story is really just beginning,” he said. “It’s still growing fast.”
Kia must immediately increase the strategic supply of Kia Carnival vans.
Honestly, Kia out here wiping up with a minivan (it’ll probably sell more Carnivals than all its EVs in the United States this year) is just proof that there’s a large contingent of buyers that, given the choice, will buy the right car.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
All this EV talk has me thinking about AC/DC, so it’s time for some “Dirty deeds done dirt cheap.”
The Big Question
Which brand that doesn’t currently offer a minivan should bring one to the market?
Top photo: BYD/Tesla
Who needs to build a minivan? Mazda.
MAZDA MUST BRING BACK THE 5!!!