In Europe, Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD is basking in the kind of headlines Tesla rarely earns, but you wouldn’t know that from recent share price woes.
BYD’s overseas sales more than doubled in the first half of 2025, overtaking Tesla in Europe for the first time.
Elon Musk’s recent incendiary address to a far-right rally in London (“violence is coming to you. You either fight back or you die”) may further tilt European buyers toward BYD in coming months.
However, its shares have lost almost a third of their value since May’s peak. The culprit: a bruising domestic price war that Beijing has now declared unsustainable, one that has caused the company to slash its 2025 deliveries target from 5.5 million to 4.6 million vehicles.
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BYD’s latest earnings report showed profits tumbling 30 per cent. Furthermore, new payment rules have forced it to halve the time it takes to pay suppliers, trimming margins further.
Analysts have slashed sales forecasts by up to a third. Yet management sounds almost cheerful, predicting most of China’s 129 EV brands will be pushed out of business. Even 20 manufacturers, BYD executive Stella Li recently said, “is too much”.
Scale, technology, and driving experience, rather than price, should then decide winners – a game BYD says it is well placed to play.
After its share price shellacking, BYD now trades at 16 times estimated earnings. Whereas Tesla commands valuations less befitting a car maker than a creed, BYD remains tied to earthier calculations.
