China EV Leader BYD Enters India’s Passenger Car Market As Part Of Global Push

BYD, one of the world’s largest EV makers, this week entered India’s passenger car market as part of larger push to more than double its distributor network in the world’s No. 2 most populous country by the end of next year and expand beyond China.

Shenzhen-headquartered BYD intends to sell 15,000 of the newly launched BYD-ATTO 3 SUVs in India in the next year, and plans “to set up a local manufacturing facility in the due course,” said BYD India Executive Director Ketsu Zhang in a statement on Tuesday.

BYD, which is more than 7% owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, has emerged this year to rival Tesla as world’s largest EV maker. Earlier this month, BYD reported sales of new energy vehicles nearly tripled in September from a year earlier to 201,259. For the first nine months of the year, BYD sales soared by 250% year-on-year to 1.18 million EVs, shaking off industry disruption from Covid-related lockdowns in Shanghai in the second quarter in part on the strength of its in-house battery supplies. Although not a household name globally like Tesla, BYD has stepped up overseas expansion this year with efforts in Japan and Thailand; India is the latest part.

BYD’s overall business is more diversified than its EV rivals – it also makes handset components and photovoltaics. BYD ranked No. 579 on the Forbes Global 2000 ranking of the world’s top publicly traded companies earlier this year. Its market cap has at times this year exceeded GM and Ford combined.

BYD opened shop in India in 2007, has to date invested more than $200 million in two plants in the country. It has 24 showrooms across 21 cities in India, and aims to expand to at least 53 showrooms by the end of 2023, the company said. “We are on track towards building a stronger ecosystem that facilitates EV adoption in our country,” said BYD India Senior Vice President Sanjay Gopalakrishnan.

BYD’s business in India covers mobile components, battery energy storage, electric buses, electric trucks and electric forklifts. E-buses powered by BYD battery, powertrain, and chassis technology are deployed are on the road in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Ahmedabad, Kochi and Chennai, among other locales, BYD noted.

BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu holds a fortune worth $19.3 billion on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List today. BYD Vice Chairman Lu Xiangyang, a cousin of Wang who also leads investment firm Youngy Investment Holding, is worth $15.3 billion, and BYD director Xia Zuoquan, who leads investment firm Zhengyuan Capital, is worth $3.5 billion.

China has the largest number of billionaires in the world after the United States.

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