On the bus, a roll call ook place: Belgium, Croatia, France, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia… As the name of their country was called, journalists raised their hands. Divided into six or seven vehicles, 250 media outlets, including Le Monde, were invited on Tuesday, November 4, to Zhengzhou, China’s 10th-largest city, by the automaker BYD. Influencers also joined the event, while the crews of the country’s most influential TV shows received special attention.
Welcome to a journey of superlatives – one meant to impress countries where the brand remains too little known, according to Stella Li, executive vice president of the group and in charge of international automotive sales. «I told my teams, I give you one year, and I will be going to a supermarket and ask people, ‘Do you know BYD?’ and I expect the answer to be 100% ‘yes.’ And then I will ask a second question: If you had to choose a technology for an electric vehicle or a plug-in hybrid, what would you choose? And I expect more than 45% of the answers to be BYD,» she said. This determined woman, the wife of founder Wang Chuanfu, with whom she built the company, is driven by a pressing motivation: The group’s sales in China have dropped sharply, and competition is fiercer than ever, both at home and abroad.
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