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BYD wants to sell 300,000+ cars a year in Europe and launch two premium brands... in two years

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BYD wants to sell 300,000+ cars a year in Europe and launch two premium brands... in two years | Top Gear

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Chinese carmaker sets out its grand ambitions to sell big, and sell premium. But will it work?

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BYD wants to sell 300,000+ cars a year in Europe and launch two premium brands... in two years

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Chinese carmaker sets out its grand ambitions to sell big, and sell premium. But will it work?

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Chinese carmaker sets out its grand ambitions to sell big, and sell premium. But will it work?

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BYD wants to sell 300,000+ cars a year in Europe and launch two premium brands... in two years

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BYD wants to sell 300,000+ cars a year in Europe and launch two premium brands... in two years

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BYD wants to sell 300,000+ cars a year in Europe and launch two premium brands... in two years

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Chinese carmaker sets out its grand ambitions to sell big, and sell premium. But will it work?

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Although it's common knowledge BYD is seriously big in China, few realise something similar is starting in Europe. Within just two years, BYD plans to sell similar numbers of cars across Europe to, say, Nissan. It's already building one factory in Hungary and has signed up for another in Turkey, to supply the continent by the end of 2026.

Sceptical of BYD's chances of actually hitting that 300,000-odd annual target, TopGear.com sat down to ask the obvious questions of Stella Li, global executive vice president and head of operations in the Americas and Europe.

How will they get so big so fast? "Build the brand. Be trusted. Don't act short-term and take solid steps," is her elevator pitch.

She cites as a brand-building exercise the huge pavillion at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where we were talking. There was the high-profile sponsorship of the soccer Euros. We gather that was got at a bargain fee because someone else pulled out. But even a bargain for an event like that is a big number. Li says once people are aware, they're more willing to try a car, and "60 per cent of people who try our cars buy one", she claims.

The company is willing to learn rapidly. The cars are continually modified following feedback from drivers here, so each shipload gets better. BYD initially talked about "NEVs", a Chinese term for electric cars and plug-in hybrids, but then realised no-one here understood, so changed what it said. Other comms have also been clunky, but that should be fixable. The initial focus was on battery cars in Europe, but Li says BYD has grasped at the moment people prefer its long-range plug-in hybrids which it calls DM-i.

"We will focus on DM-i," Li says, adding there will be be more cars with that drivetrain next year, following the Seal U DM-i. The plant in Hungary can build at least eight different cars on the same production line, a degree of flexibility hardly any other manufacturer anywhere can manage.

We spoke to her just as the EU was hitting Chinese cars with huge tarriffs. BYD's rate, at 27.4 per cent, isn't as high as others including state-owned MG, because the EU says the Chinese Government subsidises BYD less.

No surprise that Li isn't impressed. "Tariffs hurt the consumer in the EU [by pushing up car prices]. That's not right." I ask if she actually thinks the tariffs would stick, or if the EU would back down after a trade war, but she declined to wade into that political hotbed.

"We want to be a largely locally-based manufacturer, so we'll build our top-selling models in Turkey and Hungary. We began investing in Hungary two years ago, before the tariff discussion. We have a five-year focus on localisation. We'll do the battery pack in the EU, then the cells later – but we have no clear schedule for that."

Obviously though, until those plants are up and running BYD's growth could be hit by tariffs, even if it launches four to six new cars in two years as Li expects. But if Britain doesn't follow EU tariffs – the new Government is still taking soundings – then this country could be a focus for BYD.

If you think selling 300,000 cars in Europe is ambitious, how about establishing a premium brand on top? This territory is littered with the corpses of Infiniti, Cadillac, Lancia and Saab. Jaguar has disappeared for the moment.

Yet at Goodwood, BYD was showing two more brands: Yangwang with its U8 super-SUV and U9 supercar, and Denza's chrome-tastic MPV. "We need a stepping stone for those cars," said Li, but said it would be within two years for a UK launch of both brands.

Hang on. The premium market here is notoriously brand-conservative, and the incumbents are pretty good at tactical sales offers to strangle any newcomer on their patches. "People are more open to new brands in EVs and PHEVs. They're focussed on the technology. You need to build the customer experience, step by step." She believes passionately in her top-end cars. "You have to be 10 times better [than the rivals]. The U8 can swim. It's the only one that can do that and I've tried it. That's a BYD development and it's fun, cool and life-saving.

"BYD is an engineering company. We have 110,000 engineers, and we file 32 patents a day. If a petrol car is a 2G phone, we're 5G."

You might think Li's ambitious growth plan for BYD in Europe is realistic or you might reckon it's a wild fantasy. We'll only have to wait two years to find out which.

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Although it's common knowledge BYD is seriously big in China, few realise something similar is starting in Europe. Within just two years, BYD plans to sell similar numbers of cars across Europe to, say, Nissan. It's already building one factory in Hungary and has signed up for another in Turkey, to supply the continent by the end of 2026.

Sceptical of BYD's chances of actually hitting that 300,000-odd annual target, TopGear.com sat down to ask the obvious questions of Stella Li, global executive vice president and head of operations in the Americas and Europe.

How will they get so big so fast? "Build the brand. Be trusted. Don't act short-term and take solid steps," is her elevator pitch.

She cites as a brand-building exercise the huge pavillion at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where we were talking. There was the high-profile sponsorship of the soccer Euros. We gather that was got at a bargain fee because someone else pulled out. But even a bargain for an event like that is a big number. Li says once people are aware, they're more willing to try a car, and "60 per cent of people who try our cars buy one", she claims.

The company is willing to learn rapidly. The cars are continually modified following feedback from drivers here, so each shipload gets better. BYD initially talked about "NEVs", a Chinese term for electric cars and plug-in hybrids, but then realised no-one here understood, so changed what it said. Other comms have also been clunky, but that should be fixable. The initial focus was on battery cars in Europe, but Li says BYD has grasped at the moment people prefer its long-range plug-in hybrids which it calls DM-i.

"We will focus on DM-i," Li says, adding there will be be more cars with that drivetrain next year, following the Seal U DM-i. The plant in Hungary can build at least eight different cars on the same production line, a degree of flexibility hardly any other manufacturer anywhere can manage.

We spoke to her just as the EU was hitting Chinese cars with huge tarriffs. BYD's rate, at 27.4 per cent, isn't as high as others including state-owned MG, because the EU says the Chinese Government subsidises BYD less.

No surprise that Li isn't impressed. "Tariffs hurt the consumer in the EU [by pushing up car prices]. That's not right." I ask if she actually thinks the tariffs would stick, or if the EU would back down after a trade war, but she declined to wade into that political hotbed.

"We want to be a largely locally-based manufacturer, so we'll build our top-selling models in Turkey and Hungary. We began investing in Hungary two years ago, before the tariff discussion. We have a five-year focus on localisation. We'll do the battery pack in the EU, then the cells later – but we have no clear schedule for that."

Obviously though, until those plants are up and running BYD's growth could be hit by tariffs, even if it launches four to six new cars in two years as Li expects. But if Britain doesn't follow EU tariffs – the new Government is still taking soundings – then this country could be a focus for BYD.

If you think selling 300,000 cars in Europe is ambitious, how about establishing a premium brand on top? This territory is littered with the corpses of Infiniti, Cadillac, Lancia and Saab. Jaguar has disappeared for the moment.

Yet at Goodwood, BYD was showing two more brands: Yangwang with its U8 super-SUV and U9 supercar, and Denza's chrome-tastic MPV. "We need a stepping stone for those cars," said Li, but said it would be within two years for a UK launch of both brands.

Hang on. The premium market here is notoriously brand-conservative, and the incumbents are pretty good at tactical sales offers to strangle any newcomer on their patches. "People are more open to new brands in EVs and PHEVs. They're focussed on the technology. You need to build the customer experience, step by step." She believes passionately in her top-end cars. "You have to be 10 times better [than the rivals]. The U8 can swim. It's the only one that can do that and I've tried it. That's a BYD development and it's fun, cool and life-saving.

"BYD is an engineering company. We have 110,000 engineers, and we file 32 patents a day. If a petrol car is a 2G phone, we're 5G."

You might think Li's ambitious growth plan for BYD in Europe is realistic or you might reckon it's a wild fantasy. We'll only have to wait two years to find out which.

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Chinese carmaker sets out its grand ambitions to sell big, and sell premium. But will it work?