Tesla managed to win another Best Seller title in December, and another record-breaking 170,000 registrations. For the first time ever, Tesla exceeded the 100,000 registrations/month average for a quarter. BYD ended the year with a record 93,293 registrations in December. So if the Chinese automaker continues to grow rapidly this year, it could actually overtake Tesla in 2022.

According to information compiled by CleanTechnica.com, Tesla sold nearly 1 million electric cars worldwide (936,172 models) in 2021, followed by Chinese company BYD with 593,878 cars. The podium is occupied by the joint venture SGMW (SAIC Motor, General Motors, Liuzhou Wuling) with 456,123 cars sold in 2021.

The top 20 also includes ultra-famous automotive brands such as BMW (276,037 cars), Mercedes (228,114 cars) and Volvo (189,115 cars).

After comfortably winning the title of the car brand with the most electric cars sold in 2019 and 2020, Tesla had another comfortable win in 2021, winning its fourth consecutive best-selling title. However, with its market share eroding (12% in 2018, 17% in 2019, 16% in 2020, and 14% in 2021), someone might challenge Tesla in 2022, and it would most likely be BYD. If the Chinese automaker continues to grow as feverishly in 2022 as it did in 2021, when it tripled its deliveries, there could be an interesting race between the two.

True, BYD's growth in its home market shouldn't be as high as last year, but on the other hand, BYD is said to be betting big on overseas markets in 2022, so that could be the path to accelerated growth.