Two years ago few had heard of BYD in the UK and even fewer had bought a car produced by the Chinese carmaker, as not one had yet arrived on the forecourt of a British motor retailer.
After another month of stunning sales, however, the UK has become BYD’s biggest market outside China and has overtaken a clutch of established motor brands such as Citroën, Fiat, Honda, Lexus, Mazda, Seat and Suzuki.
BYD delivered 35,600 vehicles in the first nine months of the year, eclipsing even Mini — regarded as the most British of British cars, although it is German-owned and in some cases China-built — which delivered 34,200 vehicles in the same period.
BYD also overtook Tesla, which delivered 34,900 vehicles in the year-to-date, but the latter is an all-electric car manufacturer and it remains the king of the road for zero-emission vehicles in Britain.
More than half of BYD’s sales come with some form of petrol engine and its biggest-selling model is the Seal U DM-i, a hybrid vehicle.
The Chinese company said that an 880 per cent year-on-year rise in UK sales in September to 11,200 and a 575 per cent increase in deliveries in the year to date confirms Britain as BYD’s largest market outside China. This was helped, of course, by President Trump’s blackballing of Chinese exports to the US, the greatest Western consumer automotive market of them all.
American tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles rose to 100 per cent under President Biden and Trump has further limited Chinese exports to the United States.
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It may only be a matter of months or even weeks before it happens but BYD has yet to break into the UK’s top ten with 14 brands still ahead of it.
In September, however, it was within touching distance of Peugeot, the flagship of the struggling Stellantis empire, as well its sister, the UK-only brand Vauxhall, which is much diminished from its decades-long record of running second only to Ford in the hearts of British carbuyers.
Volkswagen, the runaway UK market leader, outsold BYD more than two to one although last month BYD sales were more than two thirds of entrenched players such as Ford, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan, the largest manufacturers of cars in Britain.
That top ten slot will come to pass, according to Bono Ge, UK manager of BYD, which has just signed up its 100th retail outlet. He said the company’s success was down to “spreading the word about our brand up and down the country”.
“The future for us in this country looks hugely exciting,” he said.
