For BYD, UK is Trojan Horse for conquest of Europe
On March 19, King Charles III of Britain attended his Sustainable Markets Initiative Exhibition at Hampton Court Palace. He is a big supporter of the green economy.
Among his guests was Bono Ge, British director of BYD, China’s top manufacturer of electric vehicles (EVs). The photograph of Ge talking to the King and a big royal smile was worth a million pounds to BYD.
For BYD, Britain is the Trojan House for its conquest of Europe and aim to become the continent’s top maker of EVs. Last year it sold 51,422 vehicles in Britain, an increase of 485 per cent over 2024. It is the company’s biggest single market outside China.
Its Dolphin model there sold for 26,000 pounds, compared to 40,000 pounds for Tesla Model 3.
This rapid growth continued in the first two months of this year – 6,013 vehicles, of which 2,311 were pure EVs and 3,682 were hybrids.
Britain has several attractions for BYD. Not a member of the European Union, it does not impose the tariff of 17-38 per cent which the EU introduced in 2024 on imported Chinese EVs.
Second, there is no British mass-market automaker and therefore no “patriotic” choice of cars for British people to buy. In Europe, the strongest opposition to Chinese EVs comes from France and Germany, whose Renault, Volkswagen and BMW produce EVs.
In the 1950s and 1960s, most UK cars were domestically made. But, since then, British firms have closed or been acquired by foreign companies. The famous MG brand belongs to Shanghai Auto Industry Corporation.
Last year 10 per cent of the cars sold in Britain were Chinese, consisting of BY, Chery and MG. The average for Western Europe was six per cent.
Ge said that competition in the British market was very fierce. “Our advantage is in the quality of design, with batteries and chips for all our vehicles made in house,” he said.
In 2025, Chinese automakers for the first time surpassed Japanese manufacturers as the top auto producers in the world, with 27 million in global sales, against 25 million by Japan. Japan had held the top position since 2000.
In 2025, BYD surpassed Ford to rank sixth globally, one of six Chinese automakers in the global top 20. BYD also surpassed Tesla to become the world’s top EV seller.
Tang Jin, a senior researcher at Mizuho Bank of Japan, said the rise of Chinese makers signalled a restructuring of the global automotive landscape, driven by China’s strengths in advanced technology, cost efficiency and rapid research and development.
The lack of tariffs gives BYD no incentive to build EVs in Britain. All it has it a joint venture assembly plant to make buses, using chassis shipped from its plant making EV buses and trucks in Komarom. Hungary.
It is one of two major facilities it has in Hungary, the EU country with the closest political and diplomatic ties to China. The other is a factory in Szeged that is due to start production in early 2026, making 150,000 passenger EVs a year, including Dolphin and Atto 3. In time, it plans to double production there to 300,000.
Its plan is, by 2028, to produce in the EU all the vehicles it sells there. It is looking for a site for a third plant, probably in Spain or Germany.
But, while everything is going well in Britain, that is not the case at home. Last week it announced full year net profits of 32.6 billion yuan, down almost a fifth from the previous year and the first fall in four years.
Chairman Wang Chuanfu said that competition in China’s EV market had reached “fever pitch and was undergoing a brutal ‘knockout stage’” – a reference to the savage price wars in the domestic market.
EV sales have fallen for six consecutive months amid intensifying competition from local rivals and the ending of many Chinese government subsidies last year. In the first two months of this year, BYD’s share of the Chinese EV market, including plug-in hybrids, fell to about 17 per cent from 27 per a year earlier.
All this means that, as for many Chinese companies, export markets are becoming more and more important. Can these countries absorb so much production?
The BYD board should spend more time savouring the image of Ge and King Charles talking amicably. BYD is just the kind of company the king likes.
-
Government rewrites history of Hong Kong Mark O'Neill
The government has rewritten the history of Hong Kong, saying that it was never a colony because British rule was illegal and was never democratic and downplaying the events of 1989. “The Hong Kong
-
Hong Kong Turns Green for a Day Mark O'Neill
On one day a year, March 17, the world, including Hong Kong, turns green. It is St Patrick’s Day, the National Day of Ireland, when cities around the world hold parades, balls, sports competitions
-
First two HK martyrs in Ukraine war were “so brave, so selfless” Mark O'Neill
On a cold Sunday afternoon, January 11, in west London, a large crowd of British, Ukrainian and Hong Kong people gathered to say goodbye to the first Hong Kong martyrs of the Ukrainian war. “I pay my
-
How the Irish Made Hong Kong Mark O'Neill
They provided nine of Hong Kong’s 28 governors, cured the city of tuberculosis, built and managed schools that have transformed the lives of tens of thousands of its people and won four Olympic
-
HK people in UK fear new immigration rules Mark O'Neill
Hong Kong migrants to Britain have launched a nationwide lobbying campaign to protect their future after the government published proposals to narrow their path to citizenship. Since 2021, 160,000