After beating Tesla in China EV sales, BYD plots global expansion

[beijingwalker]

After beating Tesla in China EV sales, BYD plots global expansion​

Chinese automaker to debut in more than 15 new markets, including Thailand and Germany

Chinese EV maker BYD is looking beyond its home market. (Photo by Takashi Kawakami)

TAKASHI KAWAKAMI, Nikkei staff writerAugust 31, 2022 12:51 JST

GUANGZHOU -- Top-selling Chinese electric-vehicle maker BYD has set its sights on expanding to more than 15 international markets after speeding past Tesla and other rivals at home.
Just this month, BYD has announced retail moves into Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Israel and Thailand.

In China, BYD has bested Tesla and other competitors in market share for EVs and other new energy vehicles. That category now accounts for more than 20% of new-vehicle sales in China, and the market is expanding rapidly.

BYD's rivalry with Tesla here has pushed the Chinese company to greatly improve the quality of its EVs.

"Only a few years ago they were at a level not worth taking seriously, but now they're at a level where it takes a lot of nitpicking to spot anything that looks like a defect," an employee of a Japanese automaker said.

Last August in Norway, BYD launched the Tang -- the company's first sport utility vehicle for the European market. This kicked off a steady expansion of the automaker's sales network.

Besides Europe, BYD has started to go on the offensive in Asia. The company announced in July that it would release three EV models in Japan, starting in 2023. In Thailand, the automaker has plans to build an EV plant, according to local media.

BYD plans to export Chinese-built EVs to these new markets. In China, the steering wheels are mostly on the left, but BYD will sell right-hand-drive vehicles in Japan and Australia. The company is also making sure that the charging systems match local standards.

To keep up with both Chinese demand and exports, BYD is building plants for vehicles and critical components in China.

BYD workers install batteries on electric cars at an assembly line in Shenzhen, China. © Reuters

An EV parts plant is under construction in Shanwei, a coastal city in Guangdong Province, for 25 billion yuan ($3.6 billion). The facility will be near an international port, and production is expected to start in the latter half of 2023 at an annual capacity equivalent to about 600,000 vehicles.

BYD, a major supplier of EV batteries in its own right, had an initial strategy that focused on the public sector as a way to gain recognition for its vehicle brand. Its EV exports have been limited largely to buses, trucks and other commercial vehicles. The company says it operates in more than 400 cities in 70-plus countries and territories around the world.

But its passenger sales outside China remain minimal: BYD exported just 9,921 vehicles in the first seven months of the year, according to a Chinese brokerage -- only around 1% of total sales in China for the period.

With BYD is making its move in Europe, South America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere, exports are expected to rise to between 300,000 and 500,000 units in 2025, according to Hua Chuang Securities.

BYD ended production of gasoline-only vehicles this March, but its passenger vehicle sales topped 800,000 units for the January-July period, already beating the full-year tally for 2021. In addition to its Dynasty series of EVs, this year BYD has rolled out the Ocean series geared to younger car buyers.

BYD reported Monday a 3.5 billion yuan net profit for the first half, more than triple the year-earlier result. But the company could not fully absorb extra materials costs through price hikes, so the gross profit margin for the automotive segment declined by 1.7 percentage points to 16.3%.

Ahead of the earnings announcement, U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway trimmed its holdings of Hong Kong-listed BYD shares, a filing with the stock exchange shows. This marked Berkshire's first sale of BYD stock since the investment company bought into the automaker in 2008.

Uncertainties remain in BYD's global expansion strategy. For starters, the growth of China's new energy vehicle market is fueled by generous state subsidies. BYD is the biggest recipient, with sales subsidies to the company totaling more than 5 billion yuan in 2021.

Going forward, BYD faces stiffer competition at home and overseas, sparking concerns about profitability deteriorating further.

In mid-August, when Chinese Premier Li Keqiang toured BYD's Shenzhen headquarters, he pledged to support the company's development. Such cozy ties with the state could raise concerns abroad.

It also remains to be seen whether BYD will be able to outmaneuver the world's top automotive groups from Japan, the U.S. and Europe as they accelerate into the EV market.

"Now it's not the big fish that eats the small fish," BYD founder and Chairman Wang Chuanfu said in the shareholders meeting this June, according to Chinese media. "It's the fast fish that eats the slow fish."

After beating Tesla in China EV sales, BYD plots global expansion

Chinese automaker to debut in more than 15 new markets, including Thailand and Germany

asia.nikkei.com

 

[Ahmadbhutta01]

Please set up a plant in Pakistan , it will sell like cakes

 

[qwerrty]

greedy distributor in australia is ruining byd reputation with their expensive service prices. thousands of customers are cancelling their orders. byd should cut out middleman and sell direct like tesla.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

After beating Tesla in China EV sales, BYD plots global expansion​

Well I guess 2009 has finally come to BYD...13 years later.

BYD at the 2009 Auto show announcing the 100% EV "World Car". Something that of course never happened as it pretty much didn't make it out of China in volume.

 

[mike2000 is back]

Last August in Norway, BYD launched the Tang -- the company's first sport utility vehicle for the European market. This kicked off a steady expansion of the automaker's sales network.

Seriously I don't know who comes out with this Chinese names. Lol can't they pick a catchy simple name that is relatable with anyone around the world and that can spread better ?
They should learn from bytedance "Tiktok". Simple , easy, catchy and cool. They really need good marketing teams. Name often matters as well.

greedy distributor in australia is ruining byd reputation with their expensive service prices. thousands of customers are cancelling their orders. byd should cut out middleman and sell direct like tesla.

Yes I heard about that. Seems BYD doesn't have a good sales/marketing team. Else they could have predicted something like this in advance. What they forget is that, it's better to take more time to set yourself up in a new market properly and gain a good name, this goes a long way. Once you have bad name in a new market with first time buyers/consumers then it's VERY VERY VERY DIFFICULT to fixe that again. So they might have even lost the Australian market before they even started. Lol
Tesla understood that if you want something done properly(that reflects your brand name objectively)then take time and do it YOURSELF. Lol

 

[qwerrty]

Yes I heard about that. Seems BYD doesn't have a good sales/marketing team. Else they could have predicted something like this in advance. What they forget is that, it's better to take more time to setup yourself in a new market properly and gain a good name, this goes a long way. Once you have bad name on a new market with first time buyers/consumers then it's VERY VERY VERY DIFFICULT to fixed that again. So they might lose the Australian market before they even started. Lol
Tesla understood that if you want something done properly(that reflects your brand name objectively)then take time and do it YOURSELF. Lol

it's just in australia. distributor selling the same car in new zealand have longer warranty and much lower service prices. the same in europe. in china, some byd vehicles have lifetime warranty.

 

[MH.Yang]

Electric vehicles are more expensive than fuel vehicles, and rely on better infrastructure, requiring the construction of a large number of charging stations.

So the potential market for electric vehicles is those high-income countries. Unlike Chinese fuel vehicle enterprises, Chinese electric vehicle enterprises need more efforts to enter other markets after they occupy the Chinese market. Sometimes they even need political help from the Chinese govt.

Therefore, I think that Chinese electric vehicle enterprises have actually met a new hurdle. They obviously have less advantages than Tesla in the international market.

On the contrary, China's lithium battery enterprises can enter the international market much more smoothly, and they should continue to monopolize this field for a long time.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Electric vehicles are more expensive than fuel vehicles, and rely on better infrastructure, requiring the construction of a large number of charging stations.

It's a lot easier to put a charger in an existing parking lot than refill/maintain an undergound gasoline tank.

In the future chargers are simply going to be standard just like the white lines on the ground. They'll simply auto fill your car by electromagnetic induction whenever you park without you needing to plug anything in or do anything. You stop into a shop for 10 minutes and your car charges for 10 minutes.

 

[MH.Yang]

It's a lot easier to put a charger in an existing parking lot than refill/maintain an undergound gasoline tank.

Chargers are simply going to be standard just like the white lines on the ground.

For China, that is certainly a very easy thing. However, for those African countries that have to bear foreign debt to build a road and have few gas stations. Do you really think they can provide enough charging stations?

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

For China, that is certainly a very easy thing. However, for those African countries that have to bear foreign debt to build a road and have few gas stations. Do you really think they can provide enough charging stations?

Nobody expects with a snap of the fingers every corner of the globe will have the same situation as the others.

However much of the world (like China) has modernized greatly. Africa isn't all bushmen in huts like you see in old movies.

Kenya

Ghana

Nigeria

 

[SaadH]

Seriously I don't know who comes out with this Chinese names. Lol can't they pick a catchy simple name that is relatable with anyone around the world and that can spread better ?
They should learn from bytedance "Tiktok". Simple , easy, catchy and cool. They really need good marketing teams. Name often matters as well.


Yes I heard about that. Seems BYD doesn't have a good sales/marketing team. Else they could have predicted something like this in advance. What they forget is that, it's better to take more time to setup yourself in a new market properly and gain a good name, this goes a long way. Once you have bad name on a new market with first time buyers/consumers then it's VERY VERY VERY DIFFICULT to fixed that again. So they might lose the Australian market before they even started. Lol
Tesla understood that if you want something done properly(that reflects your brand name objectively)then take time and do it YOURSELF. Lol

This is where NIO with it's world class styling and branding will eventually eclipse BYD.

 

[Strigon]

Please set up a plant in Pakistan , it will sell like cakes

Pakistan isn’t able to take a break from load shedding and you want this?

This will be a horrible investment both for China and Pakistan alike. Pakistan isn’t ready for EVs

 

[xyxmt]

Well I guess 2009 has finally come to BYD...13 years later.

BYD at the 2009 Auto show announcing the 100% EV "World Car". Something that of course never happened as it pretty much didn't make it out of China in volume.

Its 2022 now

 

[beijingwalker]

BYD also makes a lot of buses

BYD buses in Europe

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

Its 2022 now

Yes, and BYD made the same claim of going global with 100% electric cars back in 2009...especially in North America.

Any BYD car dealerships in Canada?