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BYD is not, despite the press, really very big in Europe (though it is in a couple of individual countries, notably Spain). Europe-wide, Geely, the Chinese manu
by rsynnott 9mo ago
BYD is not, despite the press, really very big in Europe (though it is in a couple of individual countries, notably Spain). Europe-wide, Geely, the Chinese manufacturer that everyone forgets about, is actually bigger: https://eu-evs.com/marketShare/ALL/Groups/Bar/All-time-by-Quarters https://eu-evs.com/marketShare/ALL/Groups/Bar/All-time-by-Qu...
- digizeph 9mo agoThe graph linked doesn’t have BYD sales, how curious
- lawn 9mo agoThey're not common enough to qualify.
- toomuchtodo 9mo ago200% YoY growth in Europe. Surpassed Ford in global auto sales, selling only EVs. Largest private employer in China. EV printer go brrr. BYD uses aggressive discounts in bid to make Germany its leading European market - https://www.autonews.com/byd/ane-byd-discounts-germany-sales-growth-0217/ https://www.autonews.com/byd/ane-byd-discounts-germany-sales... - February 17th, 2026 China's BYD Overtakes Ford in Global Sales for the First Time - https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-byd-overtakes-ford-global-150000525.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chinas-byd-overtakes-ford-glo... - February 12th, 2026 BYD's European registrations surge 270% in 2025 while Tesla slips 27% - https://cnevpost.com/2026/01/27/byd-european-registrations-surge-in-2025-tesla-slips/ https://cnevpost.com/2026/01/27/byd-european-registrations-s... - Jan 27th, 2026 BYD Sold Nearly Three Times As Many Cars As Tesla In Europe - https://www.carscoops.com/2025/11/byd-sold-nearly-3-times-as-many-cars-as-tesla-in-europe-in-october/ https://www.carscoops.com/2025/11/byd-sold-nearly-3-times-as... - November 26th, 2025 The size of BYD's factory - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42228138 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42228138 - November 2024 (615 comments)
- rsynnott 9mo agoNote that BYD doesn't just make BEVs. They're quite big in plug-in hybrids, which aren't in that data. They apparently sold 175k cars in Europe last year. A breakdown of BEV vs PHEV doesn't seem to be available, but 75k of those were one particular PHEV, so it's at most 100k BEVs. VW AG sold 750k BEVs in Europe last year: https://www.volkswagen-group.com/en/press-releases/volkswagen-group-deliveries-remain-stable-in-2025-20095 https://www.volkswagen-group.com/en/press-releases/volkswage... (see the PDF). Not saying that BYD is completely irrelevant, but the media overplays them. Presumably because BYD vs Tesla is an interesting narrative, even if the actual figures have both of those as small players in BEVs (at least for cars; BYD _is_ quite big in electric buses), with the real race being between VW AG and Stellantis. VW AG vs Stellantis is a painfully boring narrative.
- toomuchtodo 9mo agoI simply find it noteworthy how fast Chinese EVs are scaling up as a climate change mitigation. I don’t care who builds and sells them, just do so as quickly as possible.
- rsynnott 9mo agoOh, yeah, to be clear, BYD is doing amazingly well. Just not, particularly, in Europe. This seems to confuse the media.
- kjellsbells 9mo agoI suspect BYD would do a lot better in Europe if the political class wasn´t afraid of the fallout from the European manufacturers (VW, Stellantis, and all their child brands) being seriously damaged or even wiped out by the competition. That said, if relations between the EU and the US get much chillier, the EU may decide to make some sacrifices in order to have China in their camp. E.g. VW are arm-twisted into selling Škoda to BYD, with job preservation guarantees, and then BYD is badged Škoda and six months later all the old Škoda models are gone and its EVs all the way.
- rsynnott 9mo agoIf you look at individual countries, they'll show up in some.
- epolanski 9mo agoI see lots of byds in Europe. I mean, they aren't common as Teslas, but there are more and more.
- pbronez 9mo agoGeely is also present in the US via Volvo and Polestar. They haven’t delivered an affordable entry level EV yet, but I’ve been impressed with the Polestars. I’d never buy one because a Chinese car running on Google software sounds like a nightmare, but they’ve been good when I rented them.
- KennyBlanken 9mo agoPolestar's recent vehicle launches have gone extremely poorly because the software is so buggy. Their service network is also non-existent in the US.
- cyberax 9mo agoBYD has barely started exporting cars, a bit less than 1 million last year. The total European market is 11 million cars a year. The global market is 90 million units. And BYD obviously is focusing on easier markets, where they don't have to fight against tariffs.
- ZeroGravitas 9mo agoBYD have also built a fleet of 8 of their own car carriers with a million car per year capacity. As well as multiple factories in multiple countries/continents outside China, including one in California (commercial trucks and bus only)
- philistine 9mo agoThat graph is interesting because you can see direct patterns before 2020. The market was dominated by the Leaf, but during the pandemic the electric offerings of everybody arrived and we moved to a typical car market with the usual suspects being the most successful. Tesla got swamped by cheaper competitors. That and the Nazi stuff.