Is the US losing the EV race?
The Global Story
BBC
3.8 • 663 Ratings
🗓️ 26 May 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 2025, the Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD overtook Tesla as the world’s biggest seller of electric vehicles. As conflict in the Middle East pushes up fuel prices and boosts demand for EVs, Chinese carmakers are seizing the opportunity.
Driven by years of state-backed investment and industrial policy, China has quietly become the global powerhouse of EV production, leading the industry in technology, innovation and affordability, while the US struggles to keep up.
In today’s episode, we speak to Suranjana Tewari, Asia Business Correspondent for BBC News. She explains what BYD cars are really like, and how China won the EV race.
Producers: Valerio Esposito and Aron Keller
Executive Producer: Bridget Harney
Mix: Travis Evans
Senior News Editor: China Collins
Photo: A newly presented electric roadster Formula X of BYD's brand Fang Cheng Bao appears at the company’s booth at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition (Auto China), in Beijing, China April 24, 2026. Credit: Reuters/Maxim Shemetov.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.0 | When you picture an electric car here in the U.S., you probably think of a Tesla. |
| 0:10.9 | It has dominated the EV market in the States for years. |
| 0:14.5 | But Elon Musk's car company is now lagging behind a Chinese rival that many Americans may have never heard of. |
| 0:21.6 | It's called BYD, and it's surpassed Tesla to become the largest seller of EV cars in the world. |
| 0:28.6 | You can find their factory in Brazil, their buses on the streets of London, their dealerships in Morocco or Mexico. |
| 0:41.3 | Despite being effectively shut out of the American market, |
| 0:46.0 | China has quietly become the global powerhouse of EV production, |
| 0:49.4 | leading the industry in technology, innovation, and scale. |
| 0:53.3 | From the BBC, I'm Asma Khalid, and today on the global story, has America lost the EV race? |
| 1:08.1 | My name is Suran Janathowari. I'm the BBC's Asia Business Correspondence. So I travel all around the Asia Pacific, |
| 1:16.7 | covering business, economics and technology news. And I also provide analysis for all of our BBC platforms |
| 1:24.6 | on what's going on in the world of business and economics. |
| 1:28.1 | Well, wonderful. I'm excited to have you on our show today. And I will say our program, |
| 1:33.0 | The Global Story, is about where the world and America meet. And I really wanted to have you |
| 1:38.8 | on because I've been so intrigued with the success of BYD, especially in comparison to Tesla. I will say that I was |
| 1:46.2 | recently in Morocco, and I saw a BYD dealership in an upscale neighborhood. And it caught me |
| 1:53.5 | off guard because here in the U.S. you don't see BYD, like all Chinese EVs, are effectively |
| 1:58.7 | barred from the United States. So let me just start by asking, have you been in one? |
| 2:02.8 | What's a BID car actually look like? |
| 2:04.9 | Actually, I have because I'm based in Singapore, |
| 2:07.6 | and actually a lot of the cabs that we book on our ride hailing apps nowadays are BYDs. |
... |
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