BYD is a Chinese carmaker that’s based in Shenzhen in the southeast of China, the third largest city in the country after Beijing and Shanghai and houses the fourth largest port in the world. Nice.
The company is overseen by a fellow called Wang Chuanfu, but the real powerhouse of the operation is a woman called Stella Li, who has been with BYD almost since its inception.
You might have spotted a cheesy looking ‘Build Your Dreams’ on the back of one of its cars parked at the supermarket, but BYD doesn’t actually stand for that, it’s actually just a set of letters that sound like the company’s Chinese name in pinyin (the official system for romanising Mandarin), Biyadi.
BYD's inspirational slogan was quickly deleted after everyone made fun of it
When did BYD start?
BYD Auto was started in 2003 as a car-themed offshoot of Chinese industrial behemoth BYD Company, a firm that makes items as diverse as semiconductor chips, monorails, phone handsets and rechargeable batteries.
Company founder Wang Chuanfu snapped up a state-owned carmaker called Xi’an Qinchuan (less catchy as names go) to get started, but the company is notable for having invested early in electric and controlling almost all of its supply and production for batteries and chips, etc, leaving it less at the mercy of the supply chain.
This is BYD headquarters in Shenzhen – how many carmaker HQs have their own monorail systems?
How many cars did BYD sell in the UK last year?
BYD sold 51,422 cars in 2025, up a massive 485% on the previous year. BYD now has a 2.5% market share in the UK, which is twice Honda’s and better than Mini’s. It’s even more impressive when you think that the company has only been going in the UK car market since 2023.
What cars does BYD build?
BYD has an extensive range of nine cars on sale in the UK – on the electric side, these range from the Dolphin Surf city car to the Seal executive saloon and the Sealion 7 SUV. There are three plug-in hybrid models available – two SUVs and the Seal 6, which comes in saloon or estate flavours.
The Dolphin Surf is the cheapest car in the range, starting from just under £19,000 in Active trim with a 30kWh battery and 137-mile range. The Sealion 7 is the most expensive car in the range, the Excellence AWD range topping trim costing just over £59,000 with its 91kWh battery and 312 miles of range.
If you were buying in China, you can get a quad-motor supercar from BYD through its posh sub-brand Yangwang – the U9 costs the equivalent of around £200,000.
Denza started as a joint venture with Mercedes back in 2010, but the Germans got bored and sold all their shares by 2024. Smash cut to 2026 and Denza is launching in the UK with the Z9 GT, a sleek four-door saloon with a 400-mile range and £75k price tag. Think of it as a sort of corporate revenge dress.
Even more implausibly, BYD plans to launch a Ferrari-rivalling electric supercar in the UK in 2027 under the Yangwang badge, but we think someone is just having fun with us by this point.
Otherwise BYD has a joint venture in China with Toyota where it has developed two Toyota-badged EVs for the local market. If you’ve hopped on a bus recently, you might have been sitting in one of Alexander Dennis’s Enviro200EV or Enviro400EV electric buses, which were developed on a BYD electric platform.
What warranty does BYD offer?
BYD doesn’t actually mention anything about warranties on its website, but we do know that its cars are typically offered with a six-year/93,750-mile manufacturer warranty, though some parts (like the suspension and USB charging ports) are only covered for four years and 75,000 miles.
We also know that BYD has an eight-year/125,000-mile warranty on its batteries, along with a guaranteed minimum state of health of 70% throughout that period. The motor has eight years and 93,750 miles guaranteed.
The company reckons that it has tested its batteries and they’re good for 3,000 charge/discharge cycles, which is the equivalent of just under 750,000 miles, or to the moon and back, and then back again. But then you’d be stuck on the moon.
How can I buy a BYD?
BYD opened its 125th dealership in the UK just at the end of 2025, so there can’t be one too far away from your house. Which is good, because BYD’s a bit traditional like that and doesn’t really offer you any other ways to get into one of its cars than popping along to one of its car shops.
Some people will let you buy online and get the car delivered, things like that, but we can see the attraction of making sure that it’s a real company, especially when the brand is just getting going. And selling cars the old-fashioned way clearly isn’t hurting BYD at the moment...
If you see a place that looks like this you can probably get a BYD there – buy your dreams
BYD's inspirational slogan was quickly deleted after everyone made fun of it 
