BYD has a plan to dominate the global electric vehicle market. That’s why he builds his own boats.

Chinese manufacturers arrive in Europe. M.J., P.Y.D., Xping or New They announced their plans and began landing their models on European soil. Among them, at the moment, only MG seems to be achieving truly interesting registration numbers.

Despite everything, both Europe and China are clear that the electric car market promises an expansion for their brands that we have not yet seen. In fact, politicians on our continent are already considering whether to impose tariffs on some cars, although they have not finished yet.

In China, they are also convinced of the doors that open for their manufacturers with an electric car. With full control of the supply chain, the final step was to turn off the tap on graphite, which is extremely important for the production of electric vehicle batteries.

Moreover, their manufacturers know they can Do a lot of damage. Currently, MG is at the forefront of cars that compete in terms of quality/price ratio like no other. But the rest of the companies also believe they can get to the table with their all-electric models.

BYD is an important example. Although registration processes are slow, as 319 units have been put on the market since its launch in March 2023 (including 117 last October), according to Your noseThe Chinese company did not stop advertising models for our country. The BYD Dolphin, which we recently boarded, and the BYD Seal, which we’ll be in touch with soon, are the last to arrive.

But its strategy points to a strong offensive in the coming months and years. So much so that they have already decided to establish the first electric car factory in Hungary, at the expense of Spain. Now, we know what your next step is to get thousands of cars at the lowest possible price: building your own ship.

BYD, the vertical integration of everything

If BYD excels at one thing, it’s vertical integration. According to the brand, their secret is to offer cars that are more competitive in terms of price and great performance right off the bat.

According to its own information, the company operates with eight-in-one vertical integration. That is, eight of its most important components are produced themselves, such as batteries, semiconductors, software or heat pumps, to name a few.

But they don’t want this to stay here. As shown in com. cnevpostThe company is already building its own ships, aiming to land in Europe, in one fell swoop, some of them 7000 electric cars. Currently, these two ships are being produced at the Guangzhou Shipyard.

The data indicates that we are talking about a boat 199.9 meters long, 38 meters wide and nine meters deep, with the ability to travel at a speed of around 34 km/h (18.5 knots). The information also indicates that the ship could use liquefied natural gas (LNG) to reduce its emissions. We don’t know if this could impact whether some sort of emissions passport would be imposed.

The decision confirms rumors from last year, as there had been talk in China for some time that BYD would order As many as eight of these ships To transport thousands and thousands of vehicles more efficiently starting in 2025. With the ship, the company gains greater flexibility when making shipments and aims to save transportation costs.

The movement is not new, as the Chinese company SAIC chose this strategy, which in its day was also beneficial to Toyota or Hyundai, according to what they point out. Bloomberg. But the move carries clear risks. Investing in building and maintaining a fleet of ships to transport vehicles can be very expensive and difficult to amortize if expected sales are not achieved.

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Photos | Ian Taylor