BYD

BYD starts trial production at its Szeged, Hungary passenger-car plant in January 2026 — the first BYD car factory in Europe. The ~200,000-vehicle-per-year facility (representing up to €4B in total investment) is producing the Dolphin Surf compact EV (sold as the Seagull in China) and the Atto 2 SUV. In June 2026 EVP Stella Li told Reuters that full-scale series production has slipped to Q4 2026 — about a year later than first planned — as equipment is still being installed, with BYD also considering a third European plant (Spain) for longer-term capacity.

BYD's Q1 2026 revenue fell 11.82% year-on-year to ¥150.23B ($21B), and net profit attributable to shareholders dropped 55.38% to ¥4.09B ($594M) — its lowest quarterly profit in more than three years — as an intense domestic EV price war compressed margins. A bright spot: Q1 overseas sales surged 55% YoY to ~320,000 units (46% of Q1 volume, spanning 120 countries), and BYD raised its full-year 2026 overseas target to 1.5 million units.

Introduces Blade Battery 2.0 alongside a 1,500 kW FLASH Charging system capable of taking compatible vehicles from 10% to 97% in nine minutes. BYD says it had already installed 4,239 FLASH charging stations in China by March 2026 and planned 20,000 by year-end, with overseas rollout to follow.

At its May 28 intelligence strategy event BYD unveils the Xuanji A3, an automotive-grade 4nm SoC for L3/L4 driving that delivers over 2,100 TOPS in a three-chip cluster, already in mass production. Paired with BYD's next-generation God's Eye ADAS, the chip gives the company full-stack control of its assisted-driving hardware and software.

Also at the May 28 event, BYD announced it will assume full financial liability for at-fault accidents that occur while God's Eye urban autonomous driving is active, covering vehicle repairs, third-party property damage, and personal injury. The policy applies to God's Eye A and the LiDAR-equipped God's Eye B across BYD's lineup — new deliveries and existing owners who update to God's Eye 5.0 via OTA — and is the first such liability guarantee from a major global automaker.

The U.S. Department of Defense's updated Section 1260H list published June 8, 2026 names BYD — alongside NIO, Alibaba, Baidu, CALB, and 183 other companies — as a firm supporting China's military-civil fusion strategy. The FY2024 NDAA prohibits direct DoD contracting with any listed entity starting June 30, 2026, with indirect procurement bans following a year later; BYD called the designation baseless and said it would pursue all available legal channels to challenge it.

In June 2026 BYD put its planned €1 billion Manisa, Turkey car plant — announced in 2024 with a 150,000-vehicle annual capacity and up to 5,000 jobs, and originally due to start production by end-2026 — on hold after the Turkish government withdrew tax exemptions and pressed BYD to either build or repay incentives already granted. EVP Stella Li confirmed the suspension (construction had barely broken ground), saying 'right now our first priority is Hungary,' with a second priority of finding an additional European factory site. The move concentrates BYD's near-term European manufacturing on the Szeged plant, whose full-scale series production has itself slipped to Q4 2026.

BYD launches the updated 2026 Seagull — sold overseas as the Dolphin Mini / Dolphin Surf and built at the new Szeged, Hungary plant for Europe — on May 11, 2026. The four-variant city EV starts at ¥69,900 (~$10,300) and offers up to 405 km CLTC range, with an optional God's Eye B (DiPilot 300) LiDAR-equipped driver-assistance package on the top trims (~¥97,900). Pushing LiDAR-grade assisted driving into a sub-$15,000 car underscores BYD's strategy of democratizing its smart-driving stack across the lineup.

BYD officially launches the Da Tang EV on June 17, 2026 — the first D-segment flagship SUV in its Dynasty lineup — in four versions priced from ¥239,900 to ¥309,900 (~$35,500 to $45,900). Built on BYD's second-generation Blade Battery, it offers up to 950 km of range, which BYD calls the longest among full-size SUVs globally, with a dual-motor all-wheel-drive variant doing 0-100 km/h in 3.9 seconds. The model had drawn more than 150,000 pre-orders since reservations opened April 24 at the Beijing Auto Show.

BYD sold about 557,090 fully electric vehicles in Q2 2026, reclaiming the global battery-electric sales lead from Tesla. In June, new-energy vehicle wholesales rose 5.46% year over year to 403,472 units — a second straight month of annual growth — while overseas sales reached a record 175,349 units (+94.73% YoY), more than 43% of the month's total, keeping BYD on track toward its 1.5-million-unit 2026 export goal.

BYD launches the Seal 08, a 5.15-meter mid-to-large flagship sedan, in China on July 2, 2026 in both battery-electric and plug-in hybrid variants from ¥196,900 (~$28,980). It is BYD's first model with flash charging standard across the lineup, built on an 800-volt architecture with DiSus-A air suspension and up to 905 km of all-electric range. Cumulative locked orders reached roughly 65,000 units in just over 30 hours, with pure-electric configurations making up more than 65% of selections, positioning the car well below a comparable Tesla Model 3 in China.

BYD's 17 millionth new-energy vehicle rolled off the line on July 8, 2026 — just 82 days after the 16 million milestone — with the milestone car a newly launched Seal 08 flagship sedan. BYD said the Seal 08, on sale since July 2 from ¥196,900 (~$28,950), had already logged more than 100,000 firm orders, underscoring the accelerating pace of BYD's output as it expands overseas.

BYD Energy Storage said on July 9, 2026 it signed a contract to supply 11.275 GWh of battery storage — a single station rated at 1,644 MW / 11,275 MWh — for Masdar's Round-the-Clock renewable-energy project in Abu Dhabi, the world's first gigascale plant designed to deliver solar power around the clock. The RTC project pairs a 5.2 GW solar array with a 19 GWh battery system; BYD's award, one of the largest storage procurements ever signed, uses its Haohan system built around a new 2,710 Ah storage-dedicated Blade Battery. The deal deepens BYD's push beyond passenger EVs into grid-scale energy storage in the Middle East.

BYD's premium Denza brand held the global launch of its all-electric Z performance sports car at the UK's Goodwood Festival of Speed on July 9, 2026 — billed as the first Chinese intelligent electric supercar to debut there — with a Europe-first market rollout and outputs reported up to roughly 1,580 hp. The event anchored a broader BYD European offensive: around eight new models shown across the BYD, Denza, and Yangwang brands, including the Denza Z Coupe and Z Racing and the European debut of the BAO 5 plug-in-hybrid SUV, as BYD scales its premium lineup abroad to offset domestic price pressure.

BYD's factory in Camaçari, Brazil rolled out its 100,000th vehicle roughly a year after production began, with a Dolphin Mini marking the milestone. The plant — BYD's first passenger-vehicle assembly site in the Americas — builds the all-electric Dolphin Mini alongside the plug-in hybrid King and Song Pro, underscoring how BYD is leaning on overseas manufacturing and exports to offset a cooling and price-pressured Chinese home market.

BYD's 15 millionth new energy vehicle rolls off the line in December 2025, just 13 months after the 10 million milestone. By early 2026 the company says it sold 4.6 million vehicles in 2025, more than 1 million of them outside China, and its footprint spans more than 110 countries and regions.

Delivers 4.27 million new energy vehicles in 2024 and reports RMB 777.1 billion in annual revenue, cementing its position as the global new energy passenger vehicle sales champion.

Announces the discontinuation of all pure internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in March, becoming the first major automaker to go fully electric/hybrid.

Introduces the Blade Battery — a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cell-to-pack design offering improved safety (passes nail penetration test without fire), energy density, and cost efficiency. Becomes a cornerstone of BYD's EV competitiveness.

Berkshire Hathaway's MidAmerican Energy acquires a 10% stake in BYD for $230M. Launches the F3DM, one of the world's first mass-produced plug-in hybrid vehicles.

Acquires Tsinchuan Automobile, entering the car manufacturing business with the goal of building electric vehicles powered by its own battery technology.

Wang Chuanfu founds BYD Company in Shenzhen as a rechargeable battery manufacturer. Quickly becomes one of the world's largest producers of nickel-cadmium batteries.