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Last Updated on: 27th August 2025, 10:32 am
There’s a lot of electric vehicle growth and development happening in smaller markets that have traditionally not gotten much attention. We here at CleanTechnica are trying to cover this growth, but, admittedly, it’s hard to track it all. The good news is that it really seems to be surging more and more, and we’ll probably all be surprised on a regular basis on how much EV sales are growing in “off-beat,” poorly tracked markets.
This week, we have news from BYD on its ongoing growth and expansion in three of these markets — Nepal, Malaysia, and Cambodia. Let’s check in on what’s been going on.
BYD Grows Lineup to 7 Models in Nepal
BYD has launched its Atto 2 (known domestically in China as the Yuan Up) in Nepal. Apparently, this is already quite a good market for BYD, as this is the seventh model BYD has launched there. It is also right on the heels of the Atto 1 (aka Seagull) launching in Nepal on August 6.
The Atto 2 was launched in Nepal on August 19 at a NADA auto show in Kathmandu. It starts at 4.399 million Nepalese rupees ($31,325) there. BYD also sells the following EVs in Nepal: Atto 3 (aka Yuan Plus), Dolphin, Seal, and M6 MPV.
Despite its low price, the Atto 2 has a range rating of 345 kilometers (214 miles), and it sports a larger battery than the Chinese version of the car.
BYD started selling its first passenger EV in Nepal in October 2022. That was the Atto 3. However, it sold the e6 taxi there as far back as 2018.
BYD Building Factory in Malaysia
Probably one of the more interesting things to watch as BYD expands its sales globally is where the company decides to build more factories. One of those places is Malaysia. Now, this is not a full factory, but it is a CKD (completely knocked down) assembly plant that BYD is building there. The first cars assembled at the plant will roll of the production lines there next year (2026).
“Malaysia has always been one of BYD’s most important markets in Southeast Asia, and today’s dual announcement of CKD and the New BYD SEAL marks a new chapter in our journey here,” Liu Xue Liang, general manager of auto sales for BYD Asia-Pacific, noted at the launch of the new BYD Seal there.
The BYD Seal was the best selling electric sedan in Malaysia last year (2024), and was just launched in the country in February 2024. The new base (“Premium”) Seal starts at 171,800 Malaysian Ringgit ($40,567) in the country, and there’s a higher-trim (“Performance”) version that starts at 191,800 Malaysian Ringgit ($45,289).
BYD opened its 43rd store in Malaysia just a few days ago (August 22).
BYD Doubling Stores in Cambodia
Cambodia — who would think of Cambodia for an electric vehicle expansion? Well, it’s a country of almost 18 million people (about three times the population of Denmark, or approximately the population of Belgium and Norway combined), and it’s ready for EVs — as everyone should be!
BYD currently has 7 stores in Cambodia as well as one service center. By the end of the year, the company aims to have 13 stores and 6 service centers. BYD is also building a vehicle assembly plant in Cambodia, which is supposed to go into operation by the end of the year as well and be able to produce 10,000 vehicles a year. That’s a drop in the bucket compared to BYD’s overall sales, but every little bit counts, and as we’re seeing, BYD is doing this kind of thing in market after market,
BYD reached 2,500 vehicle deliveries in Cambodia in 2025 four days ago, so a rise to 10,000 vehicles a year would be a significant increase for the automaker, but it is just the kind of foreign sales growth we’ve been expecting from BYD.
BYD has been selling cars in the Cambodian market since 2020. It launched sales of the Atto 2 and Sealion 5 there earlier this year, and it expected to launch sales of the Sealion 7 and M9 in the country in October.
Images courtesy of BYD
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