Workers clean vehicles at a BYD factory in Brazil. AMERICO ROBERTO/EPA/Shutterstock Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in a note Friday while Europe has been a “continuous headwind” for Tesla, he expects sales in the region to bounce back once the automaker’s Full Self-Driving technology is approved by European regulators. In the first 11 months of 2025, Tesla’s European registrations plummeted 39% – while BYD saw registrations in Europe skyrocket 240% over the same period. But Tesla’s deliveries rebounded to a record in the third quarter as American shoppers rushed to take advantage of a $7,500 federal tax incentive for EVs before it expired on Sept. 30. The automaker also rolled out pared-back versions of its Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedan, each less than $40,000, which helped dull the effect of the tax incentive disappearing. Tesla has officially lost its spot as the world’s top EV seller to Chinese rival BYD. AP Despite poor results and mixed investor sentiment, Tesla shares ended 2025 roughly 16% higher. Musk bought $1 billion worth of shares in September. Also on Friday, Tesla said it deployed 14.2 gigawatt hours of battery energy storage products in the fourth quarter, following a record of 12.5 gigawatt hours in the previous period. Its battery energy systems include backup batteries for homes and larger systems for power-hungry data centers. The automaker is slated to report its full fourth-quarter earnings on Jan. 28. In November, shareholders approved a jaw-dropping $1 trillion pay plan for Musk dependent on a series of lofty performance targets over the next decade – like delivering 20 million vehicles and 1 million “Optimus” humanoid robots. Musk threatened to leave the company if the historic pay package was shot down. Filed under