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BYD says it can overtake Toyota without the US
BYD says it can become the world’s top carmaker within five years without entering the US passenger-car market.
Image: iXBT
BYD says it does not need the US market to become the world’s biggest automaker, setting up a direct challenge to Toyota’s long-held sales crown.
According to the Financial Times, the Chinese EV maker believes it can surpass Toyota through organic growth, not acquisitions, as it steps up its push in Europe. The comments came from Stella Li, who oversees BYD’s international operations, after founder and CEO Wang Chuanfu said last month that the company aims to become the world’s largest automaker within five years by accelerating overseas expansion and advancing charging technology.
“I think he set us an ambitious goal, counting on our own organic growth. We do not need the American market to achieve that goal.”
The scale of the gap is still significant. Toyota sold 10.5 million vehicles last year, keeping its position as the world’s largest automaker, while BYD sold 4.5 million.
As the Financial Times notes, Toyota continues to benefit from its large US presence and ongoing sales of internal-combustion vehicles. BYD, by contrast, still cannot sell passenger cars in the United States. Even so, the company is betting that faster expansion abroad will be enough to close the gap.
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Frontier Editor
Dan is our resident futurist, covering electric mobility, space exploration, and the smart home. He's interested in atoms just as much as bits. Whether it's a new battery chemistry, a reusable rocket, or a protocol that finally makes IoT devices talk to each other, Dan breaks down the engineering that pushes humanity forward.
via iXBT
