The Car That Dethrones Tesla as the Best-Selling Electric Car

BYD has positioned its urban model, the Dolphin Surf (segment B), as the best-selling battery electric vehicle (BEV) in October in Spain, with 846 units delivered, capturing 9.3% of the electric market share.

This is the first time the Asian brand's model has achieved this milestone since its market debut in June this year, according to data released on Wednesday by the Spanish Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers (Anfac).

October also saw the Kia EV3 (segment C) as the second best-selling model in the electric market with 582 registrations from the Korean brand this month, achieving a fivefold increase (+429%) compared to its figures from a year ago.

This allows it to re-enter the podium of the best-selling model of the month in the national market after last August.

The third place was claimed by Renault with its electric R5, which, due to its functionality within segment B, achieved 434 deliveries in October, a result three times higher (+270%) than a year ago when this model began to be marketed.

The top ten best-selling models are completed by the Jeep Avenger (376 deliveries), the BYD Atto 2 (351 units), the Mini Mini (341 operations), the Tesla Model Y (338 registrations), Skoda Elroq (267 sales), Hyundai Inster (231 sales), and the BYD Atto 3 (230 entries).

The American company Tesla experienced a 30% drop in sales last October with 393 sales, after achieving one of its best months in Spain in September.

With these 2025 figures, the North American company managed to sell only 55 units of the Model 3 (almost half of a year ago, -82.5%), which was the best-selling electric vehicle in August and September; and 338 units of its Model Y, which achieved a 42% growth, remaining in the seventh position among the most popular models of the tenth month of the year.

Thus, Tesla with these results cuts its growth in the year-to-date and leaves it at 7.5% with a total of 12,688 sales recorded so far.

With these figures, Tesla remains behind in Spain compared to its main competitor in global electric vehicle sales, BYD, which sold 2,806 vehicles in the month with its electric and plug-in hybrid ranges (almost three times more than a year ago, +251%). Therefore, the Asian company further extends its lead over Tesla in the year-to-date with a total of 19,423 models, almost six times more than in 2024 (+498%).

However, in the cumulative total of the ten months of 2025, the sales leader remains the Tesla Model 3, with 7,722 total deliveries (+2.9% year-on-year) and a market share of 9.5%, ahead of its 'brother' Model Y with 4,924 (+18.1% year-on-year) and the KIA EV3, which presented 4,924 sales (with an outstanding growth of 4,257% over a year ago).

In the annual ranking, the 'top 5' is completed by Renault's R5 with 3,703 and an exponential growth of 2,750% and the winner of the month, the BYD Dolphin Surf (2,796). Following are the Mini Mini (2,718), the Toyota BZ4X (2,585), the BYD Atto 3 (2,032), the Citroën C3 (1,974), and the Hyundai Inster (1,924), completing the list of the most popular models in Spain.