BYD stands for Build Your Dreams, and is the name of one of several Chinese car manufacturers making the push into global markets - including the UK - with a range of electric and hybrid vehicles. NEV meanwhile stands for New Energy Vehicle, which is the term used by BYD to describe its range of electrified vehicles. If you're a football fan you might well have seen BYD NEV branding at Euro 2024, as the company is an official partner of the tournament.
In this guide we'll explain more about BYD, and look at its range of New Energy Vehicles.
What Does BYD NEV Mean? Exploring China's electric car giant
- What is BYD?
- What Does NEV Stand For?
- Does BYD Only Build Cars?
- How Many Cars Has BYD Sold?
- Can You Buy BYD Cars in the UK?
What is BYD?
BYD - or Build Your Dreams - is a company that was founded in 1995 in Shenzhen, China, by Wang Chuanfu, a chemist and entrepreneur. It originally manufactured rechargeable Ni-Cd batteries for mobile phones, before moving into lithium-ion battery technology in 1996. In 1998 it established its first European branch.
Its automotive subsidiary, BYD Auto, was founded in 2003, and it launched its first car, the F3, only two years later. While the F3 was petrol-powered, BYD's aim was to bring its expertise in battery design and manufacture into its cars, which it realised in 2008 with the launch of the world's first mass-produced plug-in hybrid, the F3DM.
While it might still be early days in terms of brand awareness for BYD in the UK and Europe, the company itself is a giant. Globally it employs 700,000 people, including 100,000 R&D engineers.
Fuelled by the green credentials of its product lines, from cars to batteries, as well as its manufacturing processes and ambition to electrify public transport, BYD's stated headline goal is to 'Cool the Earth by 1 degree C'.
What Does NEV Stand For?
Confusingly, the 'EV' element of NEV does not stand for electric vehicle, in the same way the rest of the automotive industry uses. Instead, BYD uses NEV as an acronym for 'New Energy Vehicle', which is a reference to the fact it builds not only fully electric vehicles, but also hybrids - or specifically plug-in hybrids.
One of the key advantages BYD has over rival NEV manufacturers is that it not only produces the vehicles, but also the batteries, motors and control units that are required to make them operate, thus reducing its reliance on third-party suppliers.
Does BYD Only Build Cars?
BYD's scale goes far beyond automotive. In total it is active across four core industries - automobile, electronics, new energy, and rail transit - with operations spread over more than 30 industrial parks across China, the US, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Hungary and India. Its European headquarters is located in the Netherlands.
As but one example of its scale, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, BYD moved into the manufacture of protective equipment, and within one month had become the world's largest supplier of face masks, producing 100 million masks per day.
On the energy front, BYD manufactures everything from solar panels to energy storage. And when it came to its strategy for New Energy Vehicles, BYD used its battery expertise to develop an entirely new type of battery, called the Blade Battery. Rather than being based on the lithium-ion cell technology used by the majority of the automotive industry, Blade batteries use lithium-iron phosphate and are cobalt-free. BYD claims that the design of its Blade Battery makes it inherently safer than other types of EV battery.
How Many Cars Has BYD Sold?
In 2023 BYD broke into the world's top 10 vehicle manufacturers in terms of volume, selling more than 3 million vehicles globally.
However, it is not so much its overall vehicle sales figures that impress, but the speed at which it has grown. Having taken the company 16 years to build its first one million vehicles (a milestone it hit in 2021), it took only three more years for total production to surpass 7 million vehicles.
Today, BYD manufacturers hybrid and fully electric cars, as well as their key components such as batteries, drive motors, and semiconductors. Not only that, but BYD also manufactures trains, buses, and forklift trucks, and in recent years even moved into shipping in order to have more control over the export of its vehicles.
Can You Buy BYD Cars in the UK?
BYD currently operates in more than 60 countries worldwide, and arrived in the UK in 2023 with a range of three models: the fully electric BYD Dolphin, BYD Atto 3 (pictured at the top of this page) and BYD Seal (pictured above). An SUV, the plug-in hybrid BYD Seal U, followed in 2024, with first deliveries expected in September. As part of the brand's expansion into Europe - and to build the brand awareness required to take on established car brands - it has sponsored Euro 2024, with prominent BYD NEV branding at matches.
In order to gain market share, BYD is pricing its vehicles aggressively alongside European rivals, as well as fitting high levels of equipment as standard. As an example, its forthcoming plug-in hybrid family SUV, the Seal U DM-i, carries an entry price of £33,205 and includes luxury features such as a panoramic roof as standard. Prices for rivals such as the Ford Kuga PHEV and Hyundai Tucson PHEV meanwhile start from £38,735 and £39,330 respectively.
Want to find out more about BYD and other Chinese car brands coming to the UK? Read out guide to The Best Chinese Cars on Sale in the UK.