BYD to double export sales in 2025

CHINESE electric vehicle manufacturer BYD says it aims to double the number of vehicles it exports to 800,000 units by the end of 2025 while becoming more profitable than Toyota on a per-vehicle basis.

According to BYD chairman Wang Chaunfu, the manufacturer’s export targets for cars and light trucks will rise substantially from 417,204 units in 2024, the company eyeing “great opportunities” in markets including Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the United Kingdom “where both governments and people are friendly towards Chinese brands”.

Mr Chaunfu said BYD would focus on maintaining its cost advantage by assembling vehicles in local markets with key components sourced from China, helping it to circumvent the impact of tariffs levied against Chinese-made cars.

He said BYD had no plans to sell into Canada and the United States in the short term due to geopolitical developments, the Trump administration maintaining duties of 100 per cent on Chinese-made EVs, as per Canada.

Despite the setback, Mr Chaunfu said he expected the majority of BYD’s profits to come from export markets “at a certain stage”, without revealing more exact timing, and that the company would continue to build plants in overseas markets with its own “abundant funding”.

BYD is currently building production facilities in markets including Brazil, Hungary, Thailand, and Turkey.

Speaking with analysts this week, Mr Chaunfu said he was “confident” BYD’s per-vehicle profitability would exceed Toyota’s when it reached the scale of the Japanese manufacturer, pointing to better cost control measures than its rival. Last year, Toyota topped the world’s automotive sales ladder with 10.8-million-unit sales. BYD sold 4.27 million.

BYD is targeting sales of 5.5 million units by the end of the 2025 calendar year, rolling out more affordable battery electric models, including the Seagull hatch which sells for less than $US10,000 in selected markets.

Further, BYD plans to expand its AI and intelligent software program, employing an additional 3000 staff to make affordable smart driving technologies more accessible. Mr Chaunfu said the next major step forward in such technologies could be available in global markets by as early as “2026 or 2027”.

Locally, year-to-date sales of BYD models are up 38.4 per cent to 3956 units, following a successful 2024 calendar year in which 20,458 vehicles were sold (up from 12,438 units in 2023).

The Chinese importer currently offers a growing portfolio of new energy vehicles locally, with models including the Atto 3, Sealion 6, and Sealion 7 SUVs, Shark 6 plug-in hybrid utility, Seal sedan, and Dolphin hatch.