At a large BYD dealership in Southeast Beijing, right next to a forested park, a four-by-three meter board titled “Hot Order List” lets salespeople compare their performances while also setting the pace for the market. Here, the Qin L electric sedan, which was launched in the spring and costs half as much as the similarly sized Tesla Model 3, is topping the sales charts.
But behind the sales staff’s bright blue polos and smiles, BYD is feeling the pressure. As of August 8 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, its stock price has dropped 30.2% from its May peak – and even 49% on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange over the same period. Since 2022, BYD has stopped producing purely internal combustion vehicles, but its Chinese market sales have slowed since May. In July, sales fell 10% compared to June. While BYD remains the leader in China’s hybrid and electric vehicle market, its dominance is waning: Its market share in this sector has dropped to 27.8%, down from 35.4% a year earlier.
Across all markets, BYD’s deliveries still grew slightly in July, and exports now account for more than 20% of its total sales, compared to 8% in 2023. This slowdown of the Chinese market has made its goal of selling 5.5 million vehicles in 2025 (in China and abroad) nearly impossible. With 2.49 million units sold through July, BYD would now need to deliver an average of around 602,000 vehicles per month through the end of 2025 to meet its target, even though it has never before surpassed 515,000 vehicles (in December 2024).
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