BYD says it can become the world’s bestselling automaker within five years, and that it can do it without selling a single car in the United States. Stella Li, the company’s executive vice president, made the claim to the Financial Times.
She said the goal rests on organic growth. BYD, she added, has no need to buy other carmakers to take the top spot from Toyota. The company would not rule out buying a European luxury brand if the right chance came along, but it has no specific target at present. The US, where Chinese-made cars face high tariffs, is not part of the plan. Europe, Latin America, South-east Asia and Australia are.
Li spoke soon after BYD passed 17 million new energy vehicles built in total. The pace has quickened: the one millionth rolled off the line in May 2021, the tenth million in November 2024, and the climb from 15 million to 17 million took only six months.
Wang Chuanfu, BYD’s founder and chairman, made the same pledge the month before. He pointed to fast charging technology and rapid overseas growth as the route.
The gap to close
BYD sold 4.55 million cars worldwide last year. Toyota, leaving out Daihatsu and Hino, sold 10.5 million.
This year has started badly at home. China EV DataTracker figures show BYD sold 1,777,321 cars in the first half of 2026, down 16.1% from a year earlier, and domestic deliveries fell 45.9% to 795,169. Year-on-year sales stopped falling in May, ending eight straight months of decline, as the company leaned harder on foreign markets. Overseas growth could make up some of the domestic shortfall in the second half.
For all of 2026, BYD has guided for 5.0 to 5.5 million global sales of new energy vehicles, 1.5 million of them overseas.
