Global auto sales 2025: BYD, Geely continue climb up the top 10

The composition of the top 10 automakers didn’t change in 2025, but their order did, with the two largest Chinese manufacturers moving up the list.

According to recent financial filings from all of the world’s top automakers, BYD has moved above Ford into the number six spot, while Geely sales have grown dramatically, moving the firm up from 10th to eighth.

As we reported the other week, Toyota remains top of the pops for the sixth year running, and has expanded its lead over the Volkswagen Group. You can read more about how their brands fared, sales by region, and their mix of combustion and electrified drivetrains in our earlier article.

In third, Hyundai-Kia grew sales a smidge, with the Hyundai and Genesis brands up 0.1 per cent to 4,138,389 units. Out of that number 961,812 had electrified drivetrains, up 27 per cent from 2024. The two brands sold a total of 634,990 hybrids, and 275,669 EVs.

Meanwhile Kia was up 1.5 per cent to 3,135,873 vehicles. Electrified vehicle sales grew at the sister brand too, with hybrid sales up 23.7 per cent to 454,000, and EVs up 18.9 per cent to 238,000.

At General Motors, the company gained ground in North America with sales in the US up 5.5 per cent to 2,853,000. The General finally halted its sales slide in China where it grew 2.5 per cent to 2,418,000.

GM did go backwards in South America, though, with numbers in Brazil down 14.1 per cent to 276,000 units.

Stellantis lost ground (down 3.3 per cent) in Europe to 2,491,000 vehicles, but made up for it by growing sales in North America (up 2.8 per cent to 1,472,000), Middle East and Africa (up 7.1 per cent to 453,000), and South America (up 9.6 per cent to 1,000,000).

Volume in China, India and Asia Pacific held steady at a meagre 61,000 vehicles, while Maserati fell an alarming 31.0 per cent to 7800.

According to Bloomberg, over three quarters of cars sold by BYD were in its homeland, China, where its 3.1 million sales solidified its lead as the country’s number one automaker ahead of Volkswagen.

Exports to Europe, Latin America and Asia account for 1.05 million sales.

A presentation from Ford shows the Ford Blue passenger car division sold 2,728,000 primarily hybrid and combustion engine cars and utes, a fall of 4.7 per cent. The Ford Pro division, which is responsible for vans and heavy-duty utes, sold 1,488,000 vehicles, down 1.0 per cent.

The company also sold 178,000 EVs through its Model e division, with sales up 69.5 per cent thanks to largely to European buyers.

Ford notes it wholesaled 280,000 EVs last year, a jump of 77.2 per cent. Part of the discrepancy can accounted by the fact that Blue, Model e, and Pro divisions only exist in Europe and North America. For all other regions, including Australia and China, all sales, including those of commercial vehicles and EVs, go through the Ford Blue division.

The sprawling Geely Group saw sales jump by 23.4 per cent to 4,116,321, with plug-in hybrid and EV numbers rising 58 per cent to 2,293,099.

Unfortunately numbers for the core Geely brand weren’t broken out, but we do know that Lynk & Co rose 23 per cent to 350,495, Zeekr posted an increase of 0.9 per cent to 224,133 units, and Proton was up 7 per cent 162,601.

Volvo Cars sold 710,042 cars last year, a drop of 7.0 per cent. Once again electrified models accounted for 46 per cent of Volvo’s sales, with 323,294 sold in 2024.

Honda saw declines in all but one of its sales regions. At home sales were down 4.3 per cent to 601,000, and Europe was down 11.0 per cent to 89,000.

The vital North American market was down 5.6 per cent to 1,594,000 units, while Asia (including China, but excluding Japan) fell an alarming 18.5 per cent to 1,017,000.

Rest of the world was the only sale bucket to record an uptick, with numbers rising 7.4 per cent to 159,000.

The deep financial troubles at Nissan are well known, and sales fell in all regions except North America, which was up 2.2 per cent to 1,313,000.

There were sharp drops in China, down 11.7 per cent to 657,000, and Japan, down 15.4 per cent to 402,000. Europe and the UK were down 7.0 per cent to 330,000, while the rest of the world dropped 6.3 per cent to 505,000.