Most people have not recognized the truly "fierce" aspect of BYD Company Limited's first-half performance this year.

From January to July 2025, BYD's passenger car sales reached 2.4543 million units, a year-on-year increase of 25.99% (compared to 29.07% growth in the same period last year). While overall growth remains solid, intensified domestic market competition continues to put pressure on sales volumes.

At this critical juncture, overseas markets have become the driving force supporting BYD's continued sales growth: from January to July this year, BYD's overseas passenger car and pickup truck sales reached 550,300 units, a year-on-year increase of over 130%. Based on this calculation, exports contributed more than 60% of BYD's overall passenger car sales growth.

In July alone, BYD achieved overseas passenger car and pickup sales of 80,200 units. Export sales accounted for 23.51% of monthly performance. Even at an estimated 80,000 units per month, BYD's original annual export target of 800,000 units will be achieved by early November. Full-year export sales are expected to challenge 950,000 units, giving BYD the possibility of competing for the new champion position among Chinese automaker exports by the end of 2025.

From country-specific data statistics, BYD has simultaneously achieved "stable sales in established markets + explosive growth in new markets" this year. Indonesia showed the most dramatic surge, with first-half cumulative sales reaching nearly 20,000 units, representing a year-on-year growth rate of 1142%. Other countries with triple-digit growth include Turkey, the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Ecuador, and New Zealand. Even Japan, a "global automotive powerhouse," achieved 58% local sales growth.

Why has BYD's overseas market sales growth been so strong this year? The most qualified to answer this question are the current "leaders" of BYD's overseas business. Currently, BYD's overseas business is divided into three main sectors: Europe and Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East and Africa, managed by executives Li Ke, Liu Xueliang, and Huang Zhixue respectively.

BYD Asia-Pacific General Manager Liu Xueliang provided two main reasons for this growth in his first in-depth exchange with domestic media:

First, BYD has been operating in many countries for years, especially through its electric bus business operations over many years, accumulating considerable brand recognition and trust. The rapid growth of passenger car sales in these countries is naturally a "logical progression."

Second, BYD has always adhered to sustainable development strategies, so preliminary preparations were relatively thorough, naturally accelerating over time.

As the "brain" of BYD's Asia-Pacific automotive sales division, Liu Xueliang has been with BYD for over 20 years, leading BYD's layout and development in multiple important markets including Japan, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, and Indonesia.

Despite enormous industry competitive pressure, Liu Xueliang's approach is not simple product export, but rather a "deep integration + stability for speed" strategy - closely combining BYD's technology and brand with local market demands, gradually penetrating from public transportation to personal mobility, earning trust, and continuously learning from leading global automakers.

The following is a dialogue between the media and Liu Xueliang, General Manager of BYD Asia-Pacific Automotive Sales Division and President of BYD Japan, with content partially edited and condensed.

**Q: From public data and third-party statistics, we can see that BYD's Asia-Pacific market export sales have grown rapidly this year. Can you share specific progress?**

Liu Xueliang: The Asia-Pacific region overall shows steady progress. Thailand has the largest absolute sales figures - we've delivered 90,000 vehicles over more than two years. Indonesia should have the strongest year-on-year growth, but the core reason is the previously small base. Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore tend toward stable growth, while remaining Asia-Pacific countries have smaller absolute sales figures.

Strictly speaking, BYD's overseas business is still in a "startup" phase.

**Q: How do you view the sales growth achievements in the Asia-Pacific market?**

Liu Xueliang: Actually, BYD overseas has just begun, not in a phase of continuous explosive sales growth as many imagine. From another perspective, sales are a directional indicator, the most straightforward measurement standard. But sales have never been BYD's main overseas market development goal - more importantly, we're rebuilding the Chinese brand image.

Because even with maximum acceleration, overseas market sales remain "niche" relative to the Chinese market. The more important point is achieving sustainable development for overseas sales.

**Q: What specifically do you mean by sustainable development?**

Liu Xueliang: We haven't particularly emphasized Indonesia's sales growth this year because our target is growth rates during stable periods three to five years from now. From another angle, when you first enter a market, as long as channels are established and products have no major issues, rapid sales growth is natural. But after three to five months or a year, sales directly reflect your true strength.

**Q: Does Chairman Wang Chuanfu pressure you on sales targets?**

Liu Xueliang: BYD's internal targets are quite "stimulating." Mr. Wang visits overseas markets including Asia-Pacific annually, including dialogues with local consumers. Each visit excites local consumers and partners, and we can feel the "mission" beyond performance. Overseas business colleagues can always feel their responsibility.

**Q: What specifically does this "mission" entail?**

Liu Xueliang: BYD positioned itself as an international company from inception. As a company with deep engineering culture, we hope to use technological innovation as our starting point for serving globally. Through this continuous service, we fulfill BYD's social responsibilities globally, establish BYD's global brand, and contribute to China's overall brand image.

Chinese brands currently have a poor overseas image, often directly defined as cheap. There are historical factors - the first generation of Chinese overseas companies could only do manual labor, the second generation earned OEM fees to build overseas brands, also leaving the impression of Chinese brands being "cheap." BYD hopes to redefine Chinese brand overseas value through technological leadership.

**Q: Many people compare today's Chinese automotive exports to motorcycle exports from the late 1990s. How do you view this comparison?**

Liu Xueliang: The painful lessons from motorcycles are indeed worth remembering. Although we don't make motorcycles, in many consumers' eyes, BYD comes from that country that "used to make motorcycles." But objectively speaking, the brand shadow left by past Chinese companies can only be borne by "latecomers" like BYD.

Currently, many Asia-Pacific consumers still worry "How long can Chinese brands last?" Some Chinese brands' poor performance affects dealers, consumers, and car owners. Negative evaluations of individual brands spread, ultimately attributed to poor overall Chinese brand reputation.

BYD's situation is relatively good because ten years of electric bus operations brought Chinese electric vehicle brand image basically back from negative to "zero." I've mentioned in other interviews that having the opportunity to "start from zero" (rather than "start from negative") is already fortunate.

Going forward, BYD still needs to prove itself to local consumers through technology, products, and services. First is continuously raising self-requirements - taking showrooms as an example, we have high requirements for locations and decoration, building a relatively high-end brand image from the start.

**Q: From your practitioner's perspective, how do you understand the entire Asia-Pacific automotive market?**

Liu Xueliang: Asia-Pacific can be understood as a microcosm of the global economy, including developed economies like Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong, emerging economies like Indonesia and Thailand, and impoverished countries like Bangladesh and Nepal. India has large scale and social complexity, with sensitive China-India relations - Asia-Pacific is truly a global microcosm.

So from the entire regional perspective, to succeed in Asia-Pacific, BYD must possess the capability to succeed globally.

**Q: Specifically for Southeast Asia, what drives BYD's sales growth?**

Liu Xueliang: Southeast Asian markets vary greatly in complexity. We initially went to Thailand, where many didn't expect BYD to gain local consumer recognition short-term. We delivered 90,000 vehicles in Thailand over two years, demonstrating that BYD's technology and products suit that country and consumers.

Chinese automobiles in Thailand's market have become a trend - we and other major Chinese automakers are jointly developing this market.

Another Southeast Asian market developing smoothly is Singapore - one city contributed one-fifth of Thailand's sales volume. This partly reflects China-friendly attitudes, but more importantly, BYD first introduced Singapore's new energy garbage trucks, buses, and taxis. This not only catered to local green development plans but earned BYD respect from Singapore's market and consumers. Passenger car success afterward was naturally "logical progression."

In my view, Southeast Asian markets will inevitably become engines for the global automotive industry because automobiles have significant growth space in Southeast Asia. Especially countries like Vietnam and the Philippines have young populations with transportation still at the two-wheeler stage, presenting enormous growth potential.

**Q: How do you view the Australia-New Zealand market as wealthy Asia-Pacific markets?**

Liu Xueliang: Australia-New Zealand sits between Europe and Asia, leaning more toward Europe-America. Chinese automakers haven't performed well in these markets for many years for various reasons. Through new energy vehicle promotion, we hope BYD can demonstrate unique advantages through technology.

Especially regarding understanding differences between fuel and electric vehicles, overseas markets are still in early stages. In fact, we've already gained many consumer recognitions. During previous disasters in New Zealand and Thailand, many people first experienced the power of BYD products' V2L (vehicle-to-load) functionality, where local consumers first realized cars could be life-saving tools.

**Q: South Asian markets seem complex, especially India setting high barriers for foreign automobiles?**

Liu Xueliang: For South Asia, we're currently performing best in Nepal. Our Atto 1 (Seagull), Dolphin, and Atto 3 (Yuan Plus) sell for much more than domestic prices in this poorest country, yet still receive considerable local consumer favor.

For India, our electric buses are extremely successful - we're number one locally, so we're now trying to advance sales and operations through partners.

**Q: From current market dynamics, whether Southeast Asia, South Asia, or Australia-New Zealand, BYD's main competitors are Japanese and Korean automakers. How do you view their home markets of Japan and Korea?**

Liu Xueliang: Japan and Korea are global automotive powers. BYD is the only Chinese automotive brand entering both Japan and Korea simultaneously. Only BYD in Japan, and few Chinese brands dare attempt Korea.

Overall, both markets have quite conservative consumer styles, representing the biggest challenge for Chinese automobiles in Asia-Pacific markets. BYD entered Japanese and Korean markets through electric buses over ten years ago. Currently, Japan's electric bus market share reaches 70%, establishing fundamental quality and safety image.

In the first half of this year, our cumulative deliveries in Japan reached 5,500 units. According to Japanese media statistics, we reached tenth place in June monthly imported brand sales. Though still niche, we're happy because the significance is greater.

Japan's electric vehicle climate hasn't formed - few domestic brand electric vehicles exist, with overall annual sales growth only below 3%, not showing overall rapid growth momentum, but we'll persist.

Korea's situation is even slower. Though we previously implemented electric bus business and accumulated solid reputation, we officially announced entry into Korea's passenger car market early this year. Next, we'll see how to expand networks and achieve operational implementation and actual sales realization.

**Q: For business operations, what are BYD's main challenges in the Asia-Pacific region?**

Liu Xueliang: Currently, with further channel coverage and quantity increases, sales will continue growing. But we're closely monitoring our service capabilities - we can't just focus on selling goods; more importantly, we must comprehensively serve all consumers well. This is difficult for us during growth phases because we can't achieve everything perfectly in every new market immediately.

Second is our local partners' "trust" process with us. To some extent, they are BYD's overseas "investors." Though BYD is successful in China now, when "investors" need to open stores themselves, facing new energy vehicles as emerging products and BYD as a Chinese-manufactured automotive brand, they also need to consider "whether it can sell." We're still working hard on this, continuously providing operational service support while adhering to BYD's concept of "making a friend with every car sold," implementing market-specific products and policies rather than forcing our existing ideas onto different countries and consumers.

Ultimately achieving a "unified" relationship with partners to jointly address practical challenges.

There's also maintaining patience. If we desperately rush overseas expansion to boost sales due to small scale, it will inevitably affect pricing systems. Once pricing systems are affected, after-sales service suffers. When after-sales service suffers, customer experience deteriorates. When customer experience deteriorates, brands lose noteworthy aspects.

So ultimately, we must stick to our original intention, persisting in using technological innovation and product transformation to gain widespread consumer recognition.

**Q: If we must compare with top international automakers like Toyota, where are BYD's current gaps?**

Liu Xueliang: There are still many gaps. Taking Thailand as example, Toyota has 65 years of development history - this time dimension gap cannot be eliminated. From automotive industry historical perspective, Toyota as a "predecessor" has consistently led industry development.

Rather than saying BYD is catching up, we're learning. Currently, our relationship with Toyota involves both cooperation and competition - we have joint ventures with Toyota domestically, representing complementarity; simultaneously, we sell passenger cars in many markets where both brands compete.

Toyota representing traditional fuel vehicle brands and BYD representing new energy automotive brands together interpret today's automotive industry. But how to tell brand stories well, communicate our products and technology well, we're still far behind Toyota.

We're currently learning while communicating new energy technology well. At least in Japan, "surpassing Toyota" remains something we dare not imagine, let alone attempt.

There's also overseas implementation. BYD is currently advancing in over 110 countries and regions. Though total sales are only 800,000 units, behind this lies complex certification and market access - actually a very complex system.

Without exaggeration, achieving 800,000 overseas sales annually equals the difficulty of 8 million domestic sales. Especially initially, these underwater "efforts" present far greater difficulty and challenges than sales themselves.

At current pace, completing this system may require 8-10 years.

**Q: Toyota has a massive global production network. What are BYD's current plans in this area?**

Liu Xueliang: Japanese automakers like Toyota succeeded largely due to strong connections with "local production, local sales." This gives local consumers great satisfaction - locally produced cars contribute to local GDP, and local consumers also contribute their GDP.

So for production, we're accelerating more Asia-Pacific production layouts. Taking Cambodia officially announced in April, we'll quickly put it into use. Previously "exposed" Pakistan layout is also factual. However, we're adopting joint construction with partners in Pakistan, exploring this model.

But overall, short-term we definitely cannot match Toyota's years of established layout; long-term we still need domestic production capacity support.

**Q: What specific cases does BYD have in overseas market localization practices?**

Liu Xueliang: Just taking solid steps overseas. Sounds empty, but detail requirements are extensive. Taking Japan's market, their city density is extremely high, so central urban areas have space-limited three-dimensional parking lots, so limited that original Dolphin antennas were somewhat high. We specifically lowered roof antennas for Japanese versions.

Second is Japan's market special needs. Because many Japanese mothers are full-time housewives, situations often arise where children are forgotten in cars. BYD's Japanese models specially equipped sensors - if children remain in cars when leaving and locking, alarms sound directly. Japan's automotive industry has begun comprehensive promotion of this function.

Australia's market also received special feedback - many users appreciate BYD's seat ventilation function. This nearly essential function in China, we won't choose to "reduce configurations" compared to competitors in overseas markets, but boldly bring more innovations to markets.

**Q: Will BYD actively advance product development targeting specific markets? Will you consider establishing R&D centers in overseas countries?**

Liu Xueliang: When opportunities mature, we'll inevitably advance this. For overseas market customized vehicle models, we're already progressing sequentially - Asia-Pacific markets will have a very "milestone significance" model landing in October this year.

For overseas R&D centers, currently overseas markets haven't specifically established them, but personnel from each market move frequently - both domestic engineers visiting locally for investigation and field research, and many overseas local employees assisting domestic engineers in product creation.

Our approach may not be as comprehensive as Japanese, European-American predecessors, currently still in continuous exploration, and we'll find suitable models for ourselves in the future.

**Q: How does BYD view overall cooperation and competition relationships for Chinese brand overseas expansion?**

Liu Xueliang: We've actually seen some "super BYD fans" overseas. For example, an Australian gentleman directly bought three different BYD models - one for himself, one for his wife, one for his son. Most notably, an Indonesian family directly bought 7 BYD vehicles.

I even invited a fan to a launch event who has been buying every BYD model since 2016. And in countries like Nepal with overall middle-lower income, we still have sales. In Singapore, our "Seal" even sells for nearly 1 million RMB, still attracting users.

These devoted fans from different countries share a hidden "common point" - most are wealthy classes in their respective countries with relatively advanced capabilities for receiving and analyzing overseas information, so they were first moved by BYD.

How to eliminate remaining overseas consumer prejudices against Chinese brands is what must be done next. From this perspective, BYD's efforts alone are far insufficient. All Chinese manufacturers and all Chinese people must work together.

**Q: You mentioned in other interviews that new energy overseas expansion is a great cause. How do you understand this?**

Liu Xueliang: When we promoted electric buses globally, entering each market received enthusiastic government welcomes. Taking Nepal as example, when BYD first arrived in 2016, we received high-level reception with the Prime Minister and full cabinet participation. This treatment stemmed from BYD's sincerity in bringing the most advanced green energy technology to Nepal, demonstrating full respect for local markets.

From a macro perspective, we're not just doing automobiles, but a green industrial chain track, which deserves respect itself. Of course, we must also contribute greatly. Through BYD's technological leadership, service provision, increased partners, and future local production, we'll ultimately drive national development.

Calculating this way, whether industry or country wins, consumers win, partners win, BYD will inevitably win. We're just not rushing to win first, continuously contributing, continuously implementing BYD's story, BYD's technology, and Chinese brands steadily.

Persistence in this original intention will inevitably make us go faster and more steadily.