Stonks research · compiled 16 September 2026

BYD
Industrial Atlas

Every brand family, the technology stack underneath them, and the five businesses that are not cars — set against the one number that now defines the company: more than half of BYD's revenue is earned outside China. Prices converted at USD/CNY 6.70.

53%Share of H1 2026 revenue earned outside China — first time above half
−39.6%H1 2026 China volume, year on year
+70.6%H1 2026 overseas volume, to 792,256 units
−¥94.8bnFY2025 free cash flow, against +¥36.1bn in FY2024

01 — Two companies inside one balance sheet

The split

BYD's domestic business has been shrinking for eight consecutive months while its export business grew 70%. Because the export business carries a higher gross margin — 22% against a group 18.85% — the mix shift alone turned Q2 2026 profit positive. Everything else in this atlas is downstream of that one fact.

Overseas share of volume

Percent of BYD vehicles delivered outside China · FY2023 – Aug 2026

From a rounding error to nearly half the company in three years. 242,765 overseas units in 2023 became roughly 1.05m in 2025 and 792,256 in the first half of 2026 alone. August exports were up 134% year on year.

Free cash flow

RMB bn, annual · teal = positive, brick = negative

The year the funding model broke. Record capex of ¥152.7bn collided with a regulator-forced cut in supplier payment terms from 140–180 days to 60. Accounts payable fell ¥57bn, and net cash of ¥72.5bn became net debt of ¥90.0bn inside twelve months.
H1 2026ResultYear on year
RevenueRMB 344.82bn−7.13%
Net profitRMB 12.33bn−20.54%
Q2 net profit aloneRMB 8.2bn+29.8% — first rise in over a year
Group gross margin18.85%+0.84pp
Overseas revenueRMB 181.3bn+34%
Overseas gross margin22%+1.9pp
Overseas units792,256+70.6%
China units1,016,255−39.6%

02 — How BYD organises itself at home

Brand families

Five families, spanning roughly RMB 70,000 to over RMB 1,000,000 — a wider price ladder than any other carmaker on earth runs under one roof. The imagery below is BYD's own brand motif for each family, not vehicle photography.

BYD Dynasty brand motif: a field of overlapping metallic dragon scales

Dynasty

王朝 · Qin / Han / Tang / Song / Yuan

The volume backbone, named for Chinese imperial dynasties and styled with a dragon-scale motif. This is where the price war was fought: the Qin PLUS DM-i sits at RMB 79,800, a plug-in hybrid saloon priced against petrol compacts.

ModelTypeChina priceUSD
Qin PLUS DM-iPHEV saloonfrom ¥79,800from $11,900
TangLarge SUV¥179,800–199,800$26,800–29,800
Tang LLarge SUV¥239,900–309,900$35,800–46,300
Song PLUSMid SUV~¥110,000–160,000approx~$16,400–23,900
HanFlagship saloon~¥167,000–254,000approx~$24,900–37,900
Yuan PLUS / Yuan UPCompact SUVexported as ATTO 3 / ATTO 2—
BYD Ocean brand motif: a breaking blue wave

Ocean

海洋 · Seagull / Dolphin / Seal / Sealion

The younger, cheaper, more design-led family, and the source of BYD's export hits. The Seagull is the cheapest new car with LiDAR available anywhere — the 2026 facelift added an optional LiDAR pack at RMB 90,900.

ModelTypeChina priceUSD
SeagullCity BEV¥69,900–85,900
LiDAR trims ¥90,900 / ¥97,900		$10,400–12,800
LiDAR to $14,600
Seal 06 DM-iPHEV saloon¥96,800–155,900$14,400–23,300
Sealion 07 EVCoupe SUV¥189,800–269,800$28,300–40,300
XiaMPV¥206,800–269,800$30,900–40,300
DolphinCompact BEV~¥100,000–130,000approx~$14,900–19,400
Denza brand motif: a sea of cloud above a horizon at dawn

Denza

腾势 · premium

The premium brand and the spearhead of the overseas move upmarket. Ships with God's Eye B (DiPilot 300) including LiDAR. Price band runs roughly RMB 300,000 to over RMB 1,000,000. The Denza Z had its global debut at Goodwood in 2026 — coupe, convertible and racing variants, from £142,900 in the UK. Denza enters Europe ahead of Yangwang.

Yangwang brand motif: jagged alpine peaks at dusk

Yangwang

仰望 · ultra-luxury

The technology showcase, priced above RMB 1m. U8 SUV, U9 hypercar, U7 saloon. Gets God's Eye A (DiPilot 600, three LiDARs). The engineering set-pieces live here: the U9 Xtreme at a claimed 3,000 hp and 496.22 km/h, and the tank-turn and float-on-water demonstrations Stella Li cites as proof of the quad-motor platform. Enters Europe in 2026, positioned against Bentley and Porsche.

Fangchengbao brand motif: mountain peaks mirrored in still water

Fangchengbao

方程豹 · off-road and performance

The adventure brand — Bao 5, Bao 8, Bao 3 / Titanium 3 — roughly RMB 200,000–400,000. Overseas it is being run jointly with Denza rather than as a standalone brand, part of a deliberate simplification of BYD's international brand architecture.

03 — What BYD actually sells abroad

The global lineup

Overseas, Dynasty and Ocean are collapsed into a single BYD badge and the cars get different names. More importantly, the product is diverging: these are increasingly designed for export markets rather than re-badged from China. 13+ models across Europe and the GCC; ~190,000 units registered in Europe by end-2025. Renders are BYD's own European press images.

BYD Dolphin Surf, front three-quarter view

Dolphin Surf

City BEV

The Seagull for Europe. Five-star Euro NCAP and World Urban Car of 2025 — the cheapest way into the brand and its best critical result.

BYD Dolphin, front three-quarter view

Dolphin

Compact BEV

e-Platform 3.0 hatchback; the original European volume car before the Surf arrived beneath it.

BYD ATTO 2, front three-quarter view

ATTO 2

Compact SUV · BEV

Yuan UP at home. The B-segment SUV slot that European buyers actually want.

BYD ATTO 2 DM-i, front three-quarter view

ATTO 2 DM-i

Compact SUV · PHEV

The hybrid answer to European charging anxiety — BYD's fastest-growing overseas powertrain mix.

BYD ATTO 3, front three-quarter view

ATTO 3

Compact SUV · BEV

Yuan PLUS at home, and the car that opened most of BYD's export markets.

BYD ATTO 3 EVO, front three-quarter view

ATTO 3 EVO

Compact SUV · BEV

The 2026 refresh — a European-led update rather than a China carry-over.

BYD Seal saloon, front three-quarter view

Seal

D-segment saloon · BEV

The Model 3 rival. Notably, the original Seal has been discontinued in China while it continues abroad — the clearest single example of product divergence.

BYD Seal 5 DM-i, front three-quarter view

Seal 5 DM-i

PHEV saloon

Export badge for the Qin PLUS DM-i — the RMB 79,800 car, repriced for Europe.

BYD Seal 6 DM-i, front three-quarter view

Seal 6 DM-i

PHEV saloon

Mid-size plug-in hybrid saloon. Claimed 1,500 km+ combined range on one charge and one tank.

BYD Seal 6 DM-i Touring estate, front three-quarter view

Seal 6 DM-i Touring

PHEV estate

An estate built for Europe and sold nowhere else — the strongest proof that BYD now designs for export markets.

BYD Seal U, front three-quarter view

Seal U

Mid SUV · BEV

The Song PLUS abroad, and one of BYD's biggest export volume lines.

BYD Seal U DM-i, front three-quarter view

Seal U DM-i

Mid SUV · PHEV

The plug-in version, and the single model most responsible for BYD's European hybrid surge.

BYD Sealion 5 DM-i, front three-quarter view

Sealion 5 DM-i

Mid SUV · PHEV

Value-positioned plug-in SUV aimed at emerging markets as much as Europe.

BYD Sealion 7, front three-quarter view

Sealion 7

Coupe SUV · BEV

The performance-oriented coupe SUV, on the e-Platform with 800V fast charging.

BYD Han saloon, front three-quarter view

Han

Flagship saloon · BEV

Keeps its Chinese dynasty name abroad — one of only two that do.

BYD Tang large SUV, front three-quarter view

Tang

Large 7-seat SUV

The other retained dynasty name. Seven seats, and the top of the mainstream BYD badge overseas.

04 — The stack BYD owns end to end

Technology

BYD's claim is not that any single piece is the best, but that it owns all of them: cells, power semiconductors, motors, the vehicle, and the electronics. 120,000 R&D engineers and, per the company, 52 patents filed per working day.

ProgrammeWhat it isWhy it matters commercially
Blade battery Cell-to-pack LFP architecture. The second generation, launched 5 March 2025, is the basis for megawatt charging. Captive supply plus external sales through FinDreams, including a BorgWarner licence for Europe. A second-gen cell shortage constrained H1 2026 volumes.
Megawatt flash charging 1,000 kW+. Company claims 10–70% in about five minutes, and roughly a full charge in 12 minutes even at −30°C. Stella Li's stated commitment: ~3,000 flash-charging sites across Europe during 2026, paired with BYD battery storage so sites buy power cheaply overnight. The most checkable promise management has made.
God's Eye / DiPilot Three tiers, given away free across the range from February 2025: C / DiPilot 100 (12 cameras, 5 radar, 12 ultrasonic) on BYD-badged cars; B / DiPilot 300 with LiDAR on Denza and flagships; A / DiPilot 600 with three LiDARs on Yangwang. God's Eye 5.0 shipped January 2026. Deployed on 2.3m vehicles by January 2026 and over 3m by May. It put highway navigation on RMB 70,000 cars and destroyed the price premium every rival charged for assisted driving.
DM-i / DM 5.0 Plug-in hybrid system: 50–120 km of daily electric range, then a petrol generator. Claimed 1,500 km+ on one charge and one tank. The wedge into markets with thin charging networks. PHEVs were 2.49m of BYD's 4.27m units in 2024 — the majority of the company.
e-Platform 800V architecture, integrated eight-in-one powertrain, cell-to-body construction. Shared across every brand family, which is how one company credibly spans RMB 70,000 to RMB 1m.
BYD Semiconductor Automotive-grade IGBT and SiC power devices, largely consumed internally. A guaranteed captive volume no merchant supplier can match, and insulation from the power-semiconductor cycle.
Robotics stated Industrial robots first — BYD employs close to a million people — then humanoids, on an explicitly open platform with third-party partners. Li's testable claim: one-third of European salespeople replaced by robots, with robots in stores within two to three years.

05 — Roughly a fifth of revenue, and almost none of the attention

Beyond cars

BYD was a battery company for eight years before it built a car, and the non-automotive businesses never stopped compounding. Stella Li's framing: "BYD is several companies plus together."

Blade battery cells on an automated production line

FinDreams Battery

Blade and second-generation Blade cells. Captive supply plus external customers — BorgWarner licensed the pack design for Europe. Periodic press chatter about a separate listing.

Precision-machined aluminium smartphone and tablet housings

BYD Electronic

Separately listed as 0285.HK and consolidated. H1 2026 revenue RMB 82.23bn, +2.02%. The world's second-largest EMS — Li claims a third of global smartphones and ~80% of one major tablet line pass through BYD — now expanding into AI data-centre hardware, robotics and drones.

Grid-scale battery storage containers beside solar panels and wind turbines

Battery storage and solar

Turnkey containerised systems — 10 MWh in a 40-foot container. Li calls it the most underestimated part of BYD and ties demand explicitly to the data-centre build-out. The same product underwrites the European flash-charging plan.

A fleet of BYD electric buses and commercial vehicles

Commercial vehicles

Electric buses, trucks and forklifts. This is BYD's way into the United States, where the car brand is not going: the largest electric bus plant in the country at Lancaster, California, with 800+ union workers.

A BYD SkyRail elevated monorail train on its guideway

SkyRail

Elevated monorail and SkyShuttle. The first overseas project opened in São Paulo (Line 17) in April 2026 — driverless trains, ~616 passengers per trip, on a multi-billion-real contract. Long-duration infrastructure revenue against a volatile car business.

06 — Where the cars get built

The plant map

Nine plants in China plus four overseas builds, all organic — "No, everything is organic," Li says of M&A. Localisation is the tariff hedge, and it is also why free cash flow is negative.

LocationStatusNotes
China ×9RunningThe volume base. Sized for 5.5m+ units against volume that is not getting there — a fixed-cost absorption problem for years.
ThailandRunning~150,000 units of capacity; the Southeast Asian hub.
BrazilRunning~$1bn, ~150,000 units. 100+ local vendors qualified. Paired with the São Paulo SkyRail contract.
UzbekistanRunningCentral Asia and the CIS.
HungaryRampingTrial production from January 2026, series production targeted Q4 2026. 200+ European vendors qualified. The EU tariff hedge.
Turkey (Manisa)PausedLi told Reuters in June 2026 that construction had not begun and there is no timeline. BYD is concentrating European production in Hungary instead.
United StatesNo cars"Auto brand… we are not prepared and decide to go to US yet." Buses, battery storage, solar and electronics only. Removes the biggest tariff tail risk — and caps the addressable market.