China's BYD Logged Sales Surge in Europe Last Month

By Mauro Orru

BYD's sales in Europe tripled in August, a sign that customers are embracing its lineup of electric and hybrid vehicles as the Chinese auto giant continues to expand in the continent.

New-car registrations for BYD models, a reflection of sales, tripled on year to 9,130 vehicles across the EU last month, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, an industry body also known as ACEA. When including the U.K., Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, sales more than tripled to 11,455 vehicles.

SAIC Motor, the Chinese state-owned automaker, also logged robust sales growth. August new-car registrations for its models jumped 59% to 12,822 vehicles in the EU, according to ACEA.

The figures show that BYD and SAIC Motor continue to gain market share in the continent, where Chinese carmakers have been expanding aggressively thanks to their relatively cheap and varied lineups of electric vehicles, while some European rivals struggle to convince customers to transition to EVs.

Last week, German sport-car maker Porsche AG said that unpredictable demand for EVs had forced it to delay the launch of new all-electric models following a comprehensive review of its product portfolio.

ACEA started including BYD in its monthly data when it revealed that the company had sold more cars in Europe than Tesla in July. EU registrations for Elon Musk's electric-vehicle maker slumped nearly 37% in August to 8,220 vehicles, according to the data, extending a streak of disappointing monthly sales this year.

Tesla has been revamping its lineup recently in a bid to appeal to more buyers. Since March, it has refreshed its Model Y crossover SUV, made updates to its luxury Model S and Model X vehicles and released a pared-down, lower-cost version of its Cybertruck.

The August slump in Tesla EU sales came even as the EV market in the bloc improved overall. Sales of battery-electric vehicles increased 30% on year, with 46% growth in Germany. Registrations of hybrid-electric cars rose 14%, while plug-in-hybrid models grew 54.5%.

ACEA said EU passenger-car registrations overall grew 5.3% in August to 677,786 vehicles. Sales were up 5% in Germany and 2.2% in France, but down 2.7% in Italy. Germany's Volkswagen Group recorded sales growth of 6.3%. Stellantis, the owner of the Jeep and Dodge brands, logged 3.4% growth in registrations.

Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 25, 2025 00:14 ET (04:14 GMT)