BYD’s Domestic Woes Deepen Even as a Former Minister and a 1,500-kW Electric Supercar Lead the Counterattack
Published on 07/19/2026 at 17:02 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
BYD finds itself caught between two starkly different trajectories. At home, its retail sales have collapsed by 40% in the first half, according to data from the China Passenger Car Association, while abroad the company is notching export records and building political alliances to secure its European future. The divergence has become the defining tension for China’s largest electric-vehicle maker.
The stock closed at €9.90 in Hong Kong on Friday, down 1.75% on the day but still up 9.39% over the past month. It remains 33% below the July 2025 record of €14.80 — a gap that reflects the market’s uncertainty about whether the export engine can fully offset the domestic drag.
Political Heavyweight Joins the European Push
On 15 July, former Hungarian Foreign and Trade Minister Péter Szijjártó officially takes up a new role at BYD as head of external relations and new business fields. His brief is to deepen the company’s political and economic ties across Europe, with the planned factory in Szeged, Hungary, as the centrepiece. The site is scheduled to begin production in the fourth quarter of 2026 and is meant to anchor a European manufacturing network that reduces reliance on Chinese imports.
Not every expansion plan is proceeding smoothly. Turkey has threatened to reclaim investment incentives if BYD formally cancels its plant project in Manisa, which the automaker shelved in June in favour of the Hungarian site. The episode underscores the political tightrope the company must walk as it ramps up overseas capacity.
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Tech Offensive: A 1,500-kW Charger and an 800-km SUV
While navigating geopolitical hurdles, BYD continues to push the technological envelope. Its Denza premium brand began taking pre-orders on 13 July for the electric supercar Z, which debuts BYD’s “Flash Charging” technology capable of 1,500 kilowatts. On compatible hardware, the battery can charge from 10% to 70% in just five minutes and reach 97% in roughly nine. BYD plans to equip its entire pure-electric lineup with this system by the end of 2026, from entry-level models to luxury flagships.
On 17 July, the company also previewed the new Tang SUV from its 8-series line, which promises a range of over 800 kilometres and is slated for a second-half launch. On the materials front, BYD signed a multi-year partnership on 13 July with German speciality chemicals group Covestro to jointly develop new materials for vehicles, batteries and energy storage — a relationship that goes beyond a standard supplier deal.
The Home Market: A Brutal First Half
The technological leaps contrast sharply with BYD’s performance in China. Total passenger-vehicle retail sales fell 20.2% year-on-year in the first half to 8.701 million units, yet domestic brands collectively grabbed a record 71.8% market share — and 75.5% in June alone. The growth is highly concentrated, however. Leapmotor and NIO each posted gains of over 60%, while BYD saw its domestic sales plunge 40%. XPeng lost 15.8% and Changan Automobile dropped 17.4%.
BYD vice-president He Zhiqi painted a grim picture of the competitive landscape on 14 July, noting that 542 new models hit the Chinese market from January to May — an average of 3.6 per day. Each model costs over one billion yuan to develop and takes more than two years to bring to market, yet the sales hype often lasts less than three months.
Analysts point to two internal factors behind BYD’s decline. Earlier subsidy programmes had already pulled demand forward, and the company’s own frequent model changes disrupted production. The Qin L, Song L, Han L and Tang L lines were all either halted or phased out in the first half to make way for successors. The weakness rippled down to BYD’s battery subsidiary FinDreams, which increased installed capacity by just 0.4% to 67.6 GWh in the first five months, while its market share slipped to 14.4% as rival CATL extended its lead.
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Exports: The Bright Spot — but Not Enough Alone
International sales rose 68% in the first half, hitting new monthly records and reaching a peak in June. Management now regards the overseas push as the company’s primary growth lever while the price war at home continues. The challenge is to sustain that momentum while managing setbacks like the Turkish project and the long lead time for the Hungarian factory.
Whether BYD can stabilise its domestic position in the coming weeks will be critical for the share price. The industry consolidation that regulators have called for has yet to materialise, leaving the market overcrowded and brutally competitive. For now, the company’s story is one of two halves — a home market in retreat and a global offensive that is still gathering speed.
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