There’s been a flurry of interest in the intentions of the Chinese automotive company Chery and their ambitions in Hypercar via its halo brand Exeed.
DSC first wrote about Chery back in November as one of two major Chinese companies that we believed (correctly in Chery’s case) were progressing interest in the Hypercar class. Discussions continued, most recently at Sepang during the Asian LMS weekend.
DSC also mentioned in the same piece that we had heard rumblings that Geely was taking interest forward. However, we now believe that those rumours hold no weight, at this point in time at least.
But there is a second Chinese Company with active ambitions, BYD.
BYD is now known as ‘Build Your Dreams’ – but this is a ‘backronym’ determined over a decade after the company’s creation. The initial moniker had no acronymic source. BYD is now the largest privately owned Chinese car builder.
Multiple industry sources have confirmed to DSC that BYD has been in contact with rule makers to engage with the technical process of development and competition.
Whilst no formal announcement has been made, and no timeline has been established, DSC is confident that bilateral contact continues with a view to pursuit of a formal evaluation of Hypercar for a future programme.
IMSA GTP representation is not out of the question either, but at present BYD has no presence in North America for its road cars due to the continuing combative tariff ‘wars’ between the US and Chinese governments.
BYD Auto market cars under its core brand and has three ‘premium’ brands: Denza (principally luxury vehicles), Fangchengbao (performance off-road and track vehicles), and Yangwang (high-end luxury and performance).
The Yangwang U9 Extreme is currently the world’s fastest car after recording a top speed of 496.22 km/h (308.33 mph) in testing in Germany in the hands of Marc Basseng.
