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China is supposedly a communist country, but its economy is the closest thing the world has ever seen to bare knuckle capitalism where “kill or be killed” is the modus operandi. BYD understands this better than most and is doing everything in its power to win King Of The Mountain bragging rights.
Build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door, conventional wisdom says. But if a thousand people are trying to build a better mouse trap, not everyone is going to be successful. At the present time, there are dozens of erstwhile automakers in China whose market share is be…
Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.
China is supposedly a communist country, but its economy is the closest thing the world has ever seen to bare knuckle capitalism where “kill or be killed” is the modus operandi. BYD understands this better than most and is doing everything in its power to win King Of The Mountain bragging rights.
Build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door, conventional wisdom says. But if a thousand people are trying to build a better mouse trap, not everyone is going to be successful. At the present time, there are dozens of erstwhile automakers in China whose market share is below 1 percent — often well below.
The Chinese government may have provided significant financial and policy support to the electric vehicle sector, but that is because of a national determination that electric transportation is the essential to taming the country’s enormous emissions. It has no intention of propping up unprofitable companies. It has made it perfectly clear that if they wither and die because they are uncompetitive in the marketplace, the government will not step in to rescue them. It doesn’t get more “free market” than that.
Market share is a wonderful thing, if you have it. It allows you to take a loss on your products in the short term in order to realize profits in the long term. Many years ago, I was in a Cumberland Farms store early in the morning. The manager was on the phone to the district office, reporting that Bob’s Discount Gas across the street had just lowered its price for gasoline. The office instructed the manager to set his price a penny below the competition. Today there are hundreds of Cumberland Farms locations but few Bob’s Discount Gas. That’s the power of market share.
BYD Targets Foreign Markets
Image Credit: BYD
While its peers in China are beating each other’s brains out — selling cars for less than they cost to manufacture in many cases — BYD is looking across oceans and planning to invest where the competition is less ferocious and the possibility of making a profit is greater than it is at home.
According to Bloomberg, BYD is aggressively pursuing a plan to build factories, create dealer networks, and provide charging infrastructure for customers in Europe, led by the companies indefatigable vice president Stella Li, who seems to be everywhere all the time and putting in more hours than Elon Musk.
Some readers may recall the early 50s when Japanese brands began targeting the US market. It was only when they started producing cars in North America that their sales took off and they were able to challenge the Detroit Big Three successfully.
As part of a press tour in Zhengzhou recently, Stella Li said BYD is in the process of installing the production machinery at its first European factory in Hungary. That factory is expected to begin pilot production in the first quarter of 2026, with full production scheduled to begin before the end of the second quarter.
That factory is part of a global production shift that includes new BYD factories in Brazil and Turkey to complement an existing factory in Thailand that has been shipping vehicles to Europe since August. While acknowledging that initial production costs in Hungary will exceed those in China, Li stressed that this investment is fundamental to achieving the long term objective of establishing a trustworthy, sustainable brand in the region. Once that objective is achieved, it will drive down production costs costs and help mitigate potential volatility from tariffs.
Although the company has not yet decided whether to build another factory in Europe, Li confirmed that the team is actively scouting additional sites, with Spain currently the leading contender. Spain has an active auto manufacturing sector, thanks to the SEAT brand that is now part of the Volkswagen Group. “We’ll ramp up our Hungary plant first, then the Brazil facility, and the Turkey one,” Li said. “Then we’ll see what’s next, but we don’t have a clear plan yet.”
Further reinforcing the commitment to regional needs, BYD CEO Wang Chuanfu recently directed that research and development leaders be dispatched to Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East to tailor vehicle design and technology to specific local conditions.
Strong Sales In Europe
BYD is already getting significant traction in major European markets. In October, the company registered over four times as many vehicles as Tesla in Germany and nearly seven times more than Tesla in the UK, according to respective federal and trade authority data. Of course, BYD offers plug-in hybrid models in many European countries to avoid tariffs on battery electric cars — something that Tesla cannot do.
Despite strong overseas sales, BYD deliveries in China slipped 1.8 percent in the third quarter, despite a strong increase in battery-electric car sales, as competition from other Chinese competitors like Nio, Xpeng, Leapmotor, Great Wall, Li Motors and others is putting pressure on BYD. Stock analysts are warning the company may miss its estimated total shipments for 2025 of 4.6 million units.
To elevate its image and bolster profit margins, BYD is preparing to launch its premium Denza and luxury Yangwang brands in Europe, targeting marques ranging from Volvo to Ferrari. The upscale offerings will operate through separate, dedicated stores, Li said. The reference to Ferrari is no joke. The Yangwang U9 Extreme is the fastest production car in the world. It was clocked at 308 mph in testing and recently became the first production car to complete a lap at the ultra-challenging Nurburgring Nordschleife in under 7 minutes.
Credit: BYD
BYD is targeting upscale buyers with its Denza Z9 GT, a flagship model positioned to challenge luxury cars like the Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo and the BMW i5 Touring. Unveiled earlier this year at design showcases, the Z9 GT will be available as a battery-electric or plug-in hybrid. Pricing details are expected soon.
The luxury Yangwang brand, representing the pinnacle of the group’s technology, will follow Denza into Europe likely in the second half of 2027, following its debut in the Middle East next year. “I told my team that I’ll give them one year, then I’m going to go to the supermarket and ask people whether they know BYD,” said Li. “I hope the answer is 100 percent.” If she asks those same people which brand of plug-in or battery-electric car they would buy, she says she expects 45 percent to say “BYD.”
Electric Cars & Flash Charging Too
Complementing the vehicle rollout is a proprietary flash charging solution, which boasts a peak power delivery of 1,000 kilowatts, a figure that substantially exceeds most existing European fast chargers. Li aims to have 200 to 300 flash charging stations deployed across Europe by the second quarter of 2026, with an aggressive target to expand that network to 3,000 sites by the end of 2026.
To make that happen, BYD is employing battery storage at many of those flash charging stations. It is also prioritizing the rapid installation of dealer locations and existing Chinese corporate facilities, allowing the company to bypass protracted approval procedures.
Does anyone else besides me see that what BYD is doing is exactly what we expected Tesla to do a few years ago, before it decided not to be a car company but become a robot and AI company instead? If the world needs to transition to electric transportation, BYD is showing how to make that happen. Tesla? Not so much.
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