China's BYD has announced its ambition to become the world's largest automaker within the next five years, targeting Toyota's long-held top spot. The company's founder and chair, Wang Chuanfu, expressed confidence in overtaking global rivals through rapid advances in battery technology, fast charging innovations, and growing overseas production, including in Europe.
"BYD will truly become the number one automaker globally in terms of scale in five years," Wang said at the company's annual shareholder meeting in Shenzhen.
Investment in European fast-charging infrastructure
The company has revealed plans to invest nearly £1.8 billion in Europe to develop infrastructure for five-minute "flash charging" of its electric vehicles. This move is part of BYD's strategy to expand its presence in the region and compete with established automakers.
Sales growth and market position
BYD overtook Tesla last year as the world's biggest EV maker by sales. In May, the company sold more than 160,000 vehicles abroad, an 80% increase from the same period the previous year. It aims to sell 1.5 million vehicles overseas this year, up more than 40% from last year's 1.05 million. In 2025, Toyota retained its crown as the world's top-selling carmaker with 11.3 million vehicles, while BYD sold 4.8 million last year.
European production and tariff challenges
Stella Li, BYD's top international executive, told reporters in London that the company will start assembling cars at its new plant in Hungary in the fourth quarter of this year. She also said BYD had paused work on a plant in Turkey while it focuses on production in the European Union, where locally assembled cars will help it beat tariffs Brussels introduced on Chinese electric vehicles two years ago.
"Hungary is the number one priority right now," Li told Reuters. "The second priority will be to focus on finding a second [production] facility in Europe."
Allegations and investigations in Hungary
BYD's operations in Hungary have faced allegations that EU employment laws were being breached as it races to build its first European factory using Chinese migrant workers. The company is also the subject of claims that excavated soil from the factory site in the Hungarian city of Szeged was dumped onto surrounding farmland, potentially contaminating it. Local authorities ordered the destruction of affected crops.
Earlier this week, a spokesperson for Csongrád-Csanád county confirmed that authorities have sanctioned three companies involved in the factory's construction and imposed a fine on at least one of them. However, the findings of the investigation have not yet been made public, according to China Labour Watch, which conducted the investigation into workers.
US pressure and Chinese response
BYD is also facing pressure in the United States, where the Pentagon added it to a list of "Chinese military companies" deemed a national security risk to the US. Many of these businesses compete directly with major US companies. China responded on Wednesday by saying it believed its addition to the US list "lacks factual basis."
