BYD trims 2025 sales target, banks on exports to offset China slowdown

BYD has been the face of China’s electric vehicle boom for over a decade now. But 2025 is shaping up differently. Growth is slowing, competition at home is intensifying, and the company is beginning to look outward more seriously than ever before.

BYD now expects international markets to account for about 20 per cent of its global sales this year, according to its general manager of branding and public relations, Li Yunfei. That translates to somewhere between 800,000 and 1 million vehicles shipped outside mainland China in 2025, a major jump from the less than 10 per cent share exports held last year.

The company’s growing fleet of car-carrier ships is already helping accelerate this push, ensuring its vehicles reach ports in Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia more efficiently. For BYD, exports are no longer a side story, they are becoming a pillar of its strategy.

Scaling back expectations

The shift comes at a time when BYD is dialing back its own ambitions at home. The automaker has cut its sales target for 2025 by as much as 16 per cent, settling on 4.6 million units. That’s still a formidable number, but the downgrade underscores how quickly the environment has changed.

After years of breakneck growth, 2025 may mark BYD’s slowest expansion in five years. Analysts cite a Chinese EV market saturation, pinched margins and consumer exhaustion following years of high-pitched launches. The days of record-breaking streaks may be giving way to a more measured pace.

A global balancing act

Li Yunfei admitted that “international deliveries will make a greater contribution in the years to come," reflecting the company’s bet that overseas demand can offset the cooling at home. With Europe tightening emission rules, Southeast Asia embracing electrification, and Latin America opening up to cheaper Chinese EVs, BYD sees opportunities that were once peripheral but are now central to its survival strategy.

The company’s 2024 performance, 4.26 million vehicles sold, with under 10 per cent shipped abroad, already hinted at the limits of relying on domestic buyers alone. Now, the numbers tell a new story: if BYD wants to keep growing, it must become as much a global player as it is a Chinese champion.

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