Tesla’s China-made electric vehicle sales rose over the first two months of 2026 from the year before, regaining some lost ground to China’s BYD.

The combined January and February sales in Tesla’s China-made EVs rose by more than 35% to 127,728, up from 93,926 in the previous year, according to data published Thursday by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

The figure was adjusted to account for the seasonal sales slowdown during the two-week Chinese New Year holiday, which took place mid-February.

The combined sales volume from Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory — which produces the Model 3 and Model Y for domestic and foreign markets in Europe, the Asia-Pacific and elsewhere — was second only to BYD, which reported a 36% decline in deliveries on year during the same period.

BYD unseated Tesla as the world’s largest EV seller, on a calendar-year basis, for the first time in 2025, but Tesla’s recent delivery figures suggest that demand remains relatively healthy, as the combined sales volume for Tesla’s China-made EVs is still more than double that of the next closest automaker, Leapmotor.

Reuters also reported last week that new registrations for Tesla’s EVs, a proxy for sales, rose broadly across Europe in February, most of which are exported from Tesla’s Shanghai factory.

BYD’s new Blade battery and charging capabilities — touted to be able to achieve a 97% charge from 10% in just nine minutes — was unveiled last week to critical acclaim, as it was said to overcome common concerns over EV battery ranges.

BYD’s growing overseas footprint also enables the Shenzhen-headquartered automaker to maintain a strong lead over its domestic competitors, with its export figures exceeding domestic sales for the first time in February.

“BYD’s hedge is exports — [the company’s] overseas sales crossed 1 million units in 2025 for the first time, a buffer purely domestic rivals can’t match,” Leon Cheng, head of the mobility practice at management consulting firm YCP, told CNBC.

Other automakers from China have also grown increasingly competitive by offering a wider spread of features at more affordable prices, chipping away at sales from both BYD and Tesla.

In February, Geely’s Xingyuan was the best sold car model in China, beating offerings from Tesla and BYD, according to data from Autohome. In the month before, Xiaomi’s YU7 SUV dethroned Tesla’s Model Y as the best sold car in China.

In its report, the CPCA noted that March’s finalized sales figures could provide a better gauge for the…

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday that his company will have a “widespread” network of driverless robotaxis in the U.S. by the end of 2026.

“Tesla’s rolled out robotaxi service in a few cities, and will be very, very widespread by the end of this year within the U.S.,” he said during an appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Tesla robotaxis finally hit the road in Austin in June with human safety supervisors on board, after years of pushing back promises to deliver fully driverless cars. The company later launched a ride-share in San Francisco with cars driven by humans.

The company has not obtained permits to test or run its vehicles on public roads without humans at the wheel.

In 2019, Musk told investors that he was “very confident” the company could roll out the vehicles by 2020.

Tesla is operating in an increasingly competitive driverless vehicle market, dominated by Alphabet-backed Waymo. Amazon-owned Zoox also entered the space in 2025. Waymo ended the year in five U.S. markets and launched service in Miami on Thursday.

It was Musk’s first attendance at the annual gathering of world leaders in years. The tech billionaire previously mocked the forum on social media, calling it “boring af.”

During his conversation with Blackrock CEO Larry Fink, Musk also said Tesla would be selling its Optimus robots to the public by the end of 2027.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen in 10 years, but the rate at which AI is progressing, I think we might have AI that is smarter than any human by the end of this year, and I’d say no later than next year,” Musk said.

WATCH: The year that the robotaxi went mainstream, with Waymo leading the pack

CNBC’s Lora Kolodny also contributed to this story.