BYD Pulls Ahead of Tesla in UK, Closes Sales Gap in Germany

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-05/byd-pulls-ahead-of-tesla-in-uk-with-sales-increasing-sixfold

by breve • 9 months ago

42 35 9 months ago

I've been eyeing the Touring edition of the Seal 6 DM-i (https://www.byd.com/eu/hybrid-cars/seal-6-dm-i-touring), which supposedly gets up to ~1300KM on one tank. I've test driven it, feels nice and not as plasticky as I thought it would be, but I'm not entirely convinced it'll actually be able to do the distance as marketed. By any chance, have anyone already gotten it themselves and could share their experience, or know someone else who did and know more or less how far they can go?

constantcrying6• 9 months ago

WLTP has absolutely nothing to do with real range. It is a totally artificial test scenario, which aims to give comparability and has no connection to any real world ranges.

No, it will not go 1300km, neither will any other vehicle reach its WLTP range during normal usage.

embedding-shape6• 9 months ago

Other reviews on YouTube seems to give it around ~1000km at least, none of them say/indicate they're sponsored, but looking for someone with real experience here. I realize a single benchmark doesn't represent 100% real world usage.

reacharavindh• 9 months ago

As someone living in NL, I wish VW made exactly this.

Why?

I know I can bring my car to the workshop nearby and they will be able to procure parts and service it.

As a customer, I want a reliable mainstream PHEV car that doesn’t _need_ over the air updates, unnecessary complexities, subscriptions etc and gives me the confidence that I can use it for the next 10 years with regular maintenance.

embedding-shape6• 9 months ago

Right, seems we want the same thing, is this something you're afraid of if you would buy a BYD, I'm guessing since this is a reply to my comment?

Personally, seems they have workshops all over the country, and as one of the biggest EV brands, it won't be hard to find parts for the mainstream models nor to service it.

AFAIK, the car doesn't require OTA updates, any subscription or similar, or did I miss something went I went through what they actually offer?

vaquiya• 9 months ago

Alternative headline: European car market to be taken over by BYD in near future.

epolanski4• 9 months ago

They make good cars, they deserve to sell.

But imho the king of EVs in Europe by the end of the decade are going to be Volkswagen and Stellantis.

No foreign car company really stands a chance in the European market imho (besides Toyota of course).

mahmoudhossam• 9 months ago

Care to expand on why VW and Stellantis are going to dominate the EV market?

epolanski4• 9 months ago

VW is already the EV leader by sales, Stellantis will follow suit by the end of the decade at top 2.

There are few important reasons:

1. VW and Stellantis combine a huge array of relevant (in EU) brands including (by memory) Jeep, Maserati, Audi, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Porsche, Lancia, Seat, Cupra, Lancia, Skoda, Volkswagen, Opel, Peugeot, Citroen, Lamborghini.

2. VW and Stellantis have already all the network made of service, parts, dealerships.

3. All markets are different, and as you can imagine European brands know how to build cars for that market.

4. Both companies are gigantic and well diversified across the globe with their supply chains and plenty of deals with Chinese ev and battery makers. Even if the Chinese end up dominating the European market, they will still have to build here and do it in a JV.

scraptor• 9 months ago

The government will keep changing the rules until VW wins. Using tariffs, price floors, subsidies, whatever it takes.

hshdhdhj44443• 9 months ago

They’ve both had a huge window to win the future of the European car market (EVs) and failed to do so.

They’re facing the classic innovator’s dilemma. It will be incredibly difficult for them to build great EVs while the bulk of the money they make is through selling ICE vehicles, and more importantly, they’re culturally ICE prioritizing companies.

epolanski4• 9 months ago

VW is the sales leader in EVs in Europe, they don't need to win the future, they are already winning the present.

Also, VW sold half a million EVs in H1 2025, Tesla sold 730k, so even globally they are closer than you think and VW will likely pass Tesla at current growth rates by halfway 2027.

Also, FYI, Europeans haven't been building ICEs for some time. The last (non sports car) serious ICE developed in Europe was the Mercedes Benz OM654 diesel engine.

constantcrying6• 9 months ago

It will be incredibly difficult for them to build great EVs while the bulk of the money they make is through selling ICE vehicles

Current VW Models can compete with Tesla on equal footing. By sales VW is the defacto winner of the European EV Market.

they’re culturally ICE prioritizing companies.

VW has been developing the MEB Platform since a decade. It has not developed a new ICE Platform in that time. How are they culturally "prioritizing" ICE, when they have completely abandoned ICE development on a platform level?

Going back to ICE would be a total disaster for VW, the company is completely all in on electrification.

breve• 9 months ago

They’ve both had a huge window to win the future of the European car market (EVs) and failed to do so

Volkswagen sells the most EVs in Europe. In fact, Volkswagen's EV market share in Europe is currently the highest it's ever been:

https://eu-evs.com/marketShare/ALL/Groups/Line/All-time-by-Q...

Volkswagen owns many brands (VW, Audi, Porsche, Skoda, Cupra, etc.). Their sales are split across many brands and models.

hulitu2• 9 months ago

and more importantly, they’re culturally ICE prioritizing companies.

Some people still need a reason to carry a 1 Ton battery with them all the time. /s

rsynnott2• 9 months ago

... I mean, VW Group is the largest seller of EVs in Europe. How are you defining 'winning' here? Some sort of monopoly?

The whole "electric cars in Europe" thing is a fascinating example of what the media finds interesting vs reality. If you got caught up in the media coverage, you'd probably think it was Tesla vs BYD. Here is the reality: https://eu-evs.com/marketShare/ALL/Groups/Bar/All-time-by-Ye... (you can definitely see the impact of the Swasticar Problem in 2025).

In the past decade, Tesla has spent maybe a year in the lead. It is currently the smallest player in the top eight. BYD is not even _in_ the top eight. It is not even the best-selling Chinese manufacturer; that'd be Geely (which does just scrape into the top eight).

(Minor caveat on these numbers: IMO Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi is not a _proper_ auto group, and should probably be split out.)

From the media's point of view, the trouble is that "VW is selling a lot of cars" is a _boring_ narrative; that is what one expects to happen. "Two foreign companies are jockeying for position in the market" is a somewhat more interesting one, even if neither actually sells very many cars.

constantcrying6• 9 months ago

Why Stellantis? They are in far worse shape than the competition, their strategy of having one car which is available as ICE and EV seems doomed to failure and their ties to the US will greatly weaken them, as the markets seem to diverge rapidly. Developing ICE only for the US with no ability to sell them in Europe seems dubious, at the same time they can not abandon the US or only sell EVs there.

Renault has actually better products than Stellantis and far fewer of the problems.

hulitu2• 9 months ago

But imho the king of EVs in Europe by the end of the decade are going to be Volkswagen and Stellantis.

If they manage to fix their SW bugs, at a competitive price, maybe.

rstuart4133• 9 months ago

I have a Tesla, and have driven BYD's. The BYD computer system started to run so slowly it's voice driving directions became unrecognizable, then it rebooted itself while on the highway. After rebooting it worked for a while, then the voice started stuttering again. Do do get of lot of BYD for your money, but there is lot of sizzle compared to the Tesla sausage.

Tesla cop's a lot of crap. Most of it about is how they perform relative to Elon's promises. That's an awfully high bar, as no car a consumer can buy can come close to what Elon been promising for Tesla. Despite missing that bar by miles, the reality is they are probably the best EV you can buy right now, but they priced accordingly, at a premium (albeit not a huge one).

My primary concern about Tesla is whether it will exist in it's current form in 5 or 10 years time. You can't trust a word it's CEO says, it's meme stock whose share price must tank to a fraction of it's current value and it's corporate vision seems to be more focused humanoid robots than cars. It's competitors will catch up.

I'm told Tesla's are hard to repair, but their support is stellar where I live. A man who only works on Tesls's fixed the tail light my wife smashed while it was parked at home, and upgraded a few other things, all for free. Their charging network is second to none. While all that continues, I recon they deserve to sell a lot of cars. I hope it continues.

fakedang2• 8 months ago

The last point is very subjective. Tesla repairs are a hit and mostly miss. Their official repair channel became so bad within the span of a few years (post Covid). Their service quality drops like a cliff after the first year. You're fine if you find a stellar independent mechanic who works mostly on Teslas, but they are very few and hard to come by.

fakedang2• 8 months ago

Stellantis is garbage.

Volkswagen is en route to become garbage.

Ever driven a Chinese car? European generics don't hold a candle against them. And European cars can no longer claim a premium for higher standards - Chinese cars come with both reasonably good quality and more importantly in this climate, value for money. The only hard part currently is spare parts availability but that's very easy for the Chinese to rectify.

Tiktaalik• 9 months ago

Tesla is cooked.

metalman• 9 months ago

we cant get BYD in Canada, yet. the argument of "unfair" trade practice against China, is cringy now, but crow is still better eating than stareing at an empty plate. And once in, BYD stuff will be here to stay if it lives up to it's reputation for solid no nonsense reliable transpo, plus they are saying they will build them here, which will trigger a bidding frenzy with the US "reshoring" plants and then trying to strong arm Canadians into buying strait from them, which may be backfiring as Canada is going through unprecidented changes due to the combined effects of an aging ,born in Canada population, and a huge influx of young ambitious english speaking imigrants from everywhere but England/Europe/US. Another major factor is that China has the most verticaly integrated supply chains, and everybody else is in dissaray playing games ,favorites ,deals!, deals!, deals!, and Japan cant step in as they are at capacity. That a huge, HUGE, chunk of the younger population cant own a car, and that BYD is doing deals with rental and cab companies, means that those younger people will have there first automotive fun, in a Chinese electric, and will associate the established brands with denied opportunities or worse, opression.

BYD Pulls Ahead of Tesla in UK, Closes Sales Gap in Germany

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