Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD hopes “nearly half” of its sales will come from overseas

“Our overseas market will account for a relatively large proportion of our global sales in the future,” Executive Vice President Stella Li said in an interview at the company’s headquarters in Shenzhen on Monday. Asked to be more specific, she said “close to half” of sales will come from overseas.

Although Li did not give a specific timeframe for the global sales goal, it would require a huge increase in production and deliveries. BYD is on track to hit 500,000 overseas sales this year, reaching 270,000 in the first seven months – accounting for about 14% of its overall total. BYD’s overall goal is to sell about 3.6 million fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars in 2024, mostly in its home market.

To achieve the global goal, BYD is investing billions of dollars in production facilities in Europe, Asia and South America to serve local markets and avoid high trade barriers against Chinese electric vehicles. Earlier this month, the European Union slapped an additional 17% tax on BYD cars, while Canada and the US slapped 100% tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, accusing China of cheating trade by subsidizing the auto industry.

BYD has a factory in operation in Thailand, and more production capacity is being built in Hungary, Brazil and Turkey. It has committed to building a factory in Indonesia and is ready to sign a manufacturing agreement in Mexico. To increase its brand awareness outside of China, it signed a deal with Uber Technologies Inc. last month. to put 100,000 electric vehicles on the transport company’s platform and was one of the major sponsors of the Euro 2024 and Copa America football tournaments.

The international push is likely to show up in a robust financial report – and rising first-half net income – that BYD will release later on Wednesday.

The 50 percent global sales target likely won’t be reached until the end of the decade, according to Bloomberg Intelligence China auto analyst Joanna Chen.

“That 50 percent mix is ​​at least a 2030 story, or even later,” Chen said. “Among Chinese OEMs, Chery Auto’s current mix is ​​about half export and half domestic. It was the earliest to go overseas and is now the largest Chinese OEM in terms of exports. Others are still very dependent on the domestic market.”

BYD has sold well in countries such as Brazil, Israel, Thailand and Australia, but European drivers remain less enthusiastic about buying an electric vehicle, reflecting bigger problems for legacy and new players on the continent. BYD has also become the dominant force in its home market, surpassing Western automakers such as Volkswagen AG to sell 3 million units last year.

Data centers

BYD is also setting up its own data centers in individual European countries as it expands its autonomous and internet-connected cars, Li said.

The collected data will not be sent to China, she said, citing data security concerns that the US is trying to address.

Efforts to keep customer data safe mirror the commitment of rival electric vehicle maker Xpeng Inc. to set up large-scale data centers in Europe to handle software data collection in its intelligent driving cars.

Recommended reading:
In our new special edition, a Wall Street legend gets a makeover, a tale of crypto iniquity, poultry misbehavior and more.
Read the stories.