China's BYD confident of reaching 1.5 million unit overseas sales in 2026

BYD (1211) is "highly confident" of reaching its 2026 overseas sales target of 1.5 million vehicles or even higher, the ​company told analysts during its post-earnings call on Monday.

The ‌Chinese EV giant said overseas markets could eventually account for about half of its business, according to two people with direct knowledge of the ​call.

BYD said in January that its export target for ​this year would be 1.3 million vehicles, down from ⁠as much as 1.6 million units its management told Citi in ​November.

Overseas sales as a share of the total more than doubled ​to 22.7 percent last year and more than doubled again to 50 percent in January-February.

BYD on Friday reported a bigger-than-expected profit drop for 2025, as price wars at ​home hurt its profits, heading into another tough year due ​to intensifying competition and softer domestic demand.

The company said that overseas expansion ‌could ⁠come through localization and its factories in Europe and Indonesia were expected to begin mass production around March or April this year, according to one of the two sources.

BYD did not respond ​to a Reuters' ​request for ⁠comment. The sources declined to be named as the call was not public.

BYD said it did ​not want to compete through price wars and ​instead aimed ⁠to focus on technology and innovation with continuous R&D spending, the two sources said.

The Chinese government is cracking down on cut-throat competition ⁠in ​the auto sector and most recently ​laid out pricing guidelines aimed at curbing below-cost selling in the auto supply chain.

Reuters