Overview
- BYD reported its sharpest profit drop in six years, with net income down 55.4% to 4.1 billion yuan and revenue off 11.8%, and it is leaning on exports with a goal of selling 1.5 million vehicles abroad this year.
- New figures from Germany’s ZSW put the global electric-vehicle fleet at more than 74 million at the end of 2025, a record annual jump of about 19 million, with roughly 44 million in China, or about six in ten worldwide.
- ZSW’s maker ranking, which sums new registrations rather than exact on-road stock, shows BYD at about 15 million, Tesla near 9 million and Volkswagen around 5.7 million, a method that can slightly overstate fleets.
- At Auto China in Beijing, Chinese brands drew the biggest crowds with AI-heavy, low-priced models as foreign automakers doubled down on local design and cost cuts, including Volkswagen’s China-only Jetta EVs targeting price points near €10,000.
- Chinese automakers are moving to build in Europe to blunt EU tariffs, with reports of MG/SAIC weighing a plant in Spain and BYD preparing to start production in Hungary, while KBA data in Germany show the VW ID.3 has overtaken the Tesla Model Y as the most common EV as of January 1st, 2026.