BYD expands to capture 10 percent share of German auto market

Emmanuel Thomas, DPA, Saturday, June 17, 2023

 

CHINA – The Chinese electric car giant BYD wants to strongly expand its market share in Germany, saying that it can capture up to 10% of it.

“We want to have around 5 to 10% in the electric segment in the medium term,” said the sales director for Germany, Lars Pauly, without giving a date. At the moment, he is busy setting up the sales structures, he said.

The end-customer business has been running since the beginning of 2023, with 165 BYD cars registered by the end of May, according to the Federal Motor Transport Authority. In total, there have been 1.1 million electric cars sold in Germany since the beginning of the year.

BYD sold 550,000 electric cars worldwide in 2022, 440,000 of them in China. This is the first time since 2008 that the Volkswagen rival has taken the market leadership in China from the German core brand. According to automotive experts, Chinese manufacturers are leaders in battery technology and autonomous driving.

However, there is also scepticism about the chances of the new competitors to gain a foothold in established markets: In 2022 as a whole, the market share of Chinese brands such as Nio or MG Roewe in Germany was just 0.9%.

In Germany, BYD is primarily targeting price-sensitive customers, explained Pauly, who heads business at BYD importer Hedin Electric Mobility in Stuttgart.

The company wants to offer an “accessible electric vehicle” and operate in price segments “where others may not be active in the medium to long term.” In terms of sales, BYD mainly relies on local dealers, which means that later there will also be contacts for after-sales service.
Companies like BYD, which started as a battery producer in 1995, have to be taken seriously in the long term, just from a technological point of view, Pauly said.

“On the other hand, we already have respect for established European brands that have simply built up their brand, that have built up their sales organization,” Pauly said.

However, the times when Chinese manufacturers disgraced themselves in safety tests or with poor quality are over, he said.