Stella Li, Vice President of BYD: “We are the iPhone of the automotive industry”

At the men’s European football championship in Germany this summer, spectators and fans saw a name that was unfamiliar to them, at least to most of them. It was BYD, the initials of which stand for ‘Build Your Dreams’, which paid a good amount of money to sponsor one of the biggest sporting events on the continent. This brand, although it sounds new in European markets (it arrived in Spain just a year and a half ago), is already the largest Chinese car producer and the largest plug-in car manufacturer in the world (if we talk about pure electric cars, the leader in 2024 is Tesla).

Specifically in Spain, BYD offers six electric models and one plug-in hybrid. “We don’t have a sales share target, we are more focused on offering the best models to the market and strengthening our after-sales team. We want consumers who test drive our vehicles to fall in love with them, understand our most innovative technology and enjoy the premium features we offer,” says Stella Li, Vice President of BYD and CEO of BYD Americas, to FiveDays In an interview that took place at a dealership of the brand in Majadahonda, Madrid. “BYD is the iPhone of the automobile industry, very different from the rest,” says the executive, who adds that the company must continue making efforts so that more people know about the brand, although she is “very satisfied” with the work done in this regard so far.

These “car iPhones” will be produced in Hungary and Turkey, the two locations chosen by the Asian giant company to install its first factories in the Old Continent, to the detriment of countries such as Spain, which competed to acquire these factories. In Hungary and Turkey, it will make 200,000 and 150,000 cars annually, respectively, a volume that Li considers sufficient to meet the company’s demand in Europe in the coming years. “At least in the short term, we have no plans to add a new plant,” says the executive.

The factories in Hungary and Turkey will help BYD avoid the provisional tariffs that the European Commission has imposed on Chinese car brands to protect its automotive industry. These tariffs, which They range from 17% to 36.3% depending on the brand (in the case of BYD, it is affected by the lowest tax, 17%)have been in effect since 5 July, but are not definitive, as Beijing and Brussels are trying to reach an agreement that satisfies both parties. The European Commission argues that the Chinese automobile industry received illegal subsidies from Xi Jinping’s government for years, which has given it a supposed competitive advantage over Europe. To the percentages mentioned, we must add the 10% that the EU already charged for these products previously.

“We do not agree with what the European Union is doing.“It is not fair to European consumers who are being deprived of access to premium and competitive technology. The Commission’s investigation is not based on real data, but on assumptions. However, BYD is a long-term player, we do not make decisions based on tariffs. We want to be one of the major players in the industry and that means manufacturing here, we do not think in the short term. Once we start manufacturing in Europe, we will also be a European manufacturer, and there will be no tariff problems,” says Li.

In addition to cars, BYD also assembles a large part of the car components such as parts, batteries and microchips. The company claims to make around 80% of the components in its cars, a figure significantly higher than the average for other brands, which usually use component manufacturers such as Gestamp, Valeo or Antolin, to name a few examples. Even outside the automotive industry, BYD claims that its components are present in 20% of mobile phones and tablets worldwide. “BYD is a company of engineers, with more than 110,000 on staff,” says the businesswoman. In the field of car batteries, BYD is the second largest Chinese manufacturer, only behind the all-powerful CATL, which controls more than a third of global production.

BYD’s growth in Spain

The manufacturer, which registered 1,473 vehicles in Spain between January and July (1,000% more than last year, when it arrived in the country), according to data from Anfac, the association of automobile manufacturers, offers, in Li’s words, cars “with premium technology but at an affordable price.” “Our focus is not on making cheap or low-cost vehicles,” says the businesswoman, although the company has already confirmed that next year it will bring the BYD Seagull or Dolphin mini to Europe, which will be the company’s cheapest electric car. Before it, the BYD Sea Lion 07 will arrive, also electric, scheduled for the end of this year. In addition, the brand is studying bringing more plug-in hybrids to adapt to a European customer who is leaning more towards hybrid models to the detriment of pure electric ones.

Of the cars currently offered by the brand, the cheapest is the Dolphin, for which BYD has just launched a promotion that, including the subsidies of the Moves III Plan (with the scrapping of an old combustion car it reaches 7,000 euros), remains at 19,990 euros, which makes it a very competitive offer in a market in which cheap electric cars are not abundant. BYD, like other manufacturers such as Stellantis, Renault or the also Chinese MG, advances these Moves III subsidies if the customer finances the purchase with CA Auto Bank, the brand’s financial institution. Without promotions or public aid, the Dolphin is sold on the manufacturer’s website from 35,690 euros, while the highest-end BYD models, which are the Tang and Han models, are offered from 69,990 euros. This price range leaves it clearly above MG, the most successful Chinese brand in Spain so far, although its offer also includes combustion models, something that BYD does not do.

In addition to the Dolphin, the company’s big bet is the BYD Seal U DM-I, its only plug-in hybrid for sale in Spain, which is offered from 38,500 euros. This month, the BYD ship, called Explorer No.1, landed for the first time in the country to deliver 1,000 units of this car, part of which are already sold while others are going to reinforce the brand’s stock. “I think the Seal U DM-I can play a very important role. It is an electric vehicle for daily life, but it can also solve the problem of anxiety about range and charging infrastructure. It is the perfect intermediate product for the future,” argues the manager, who highlights that with a full tank of fuel and the battery fully charged, the car offers a range of 1,080 kilometers.

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