Despite the tax on imported Chinese EVs in place in Europe, BYD is making good on its pledge to continue its global expansion and shows no signs of slowing down. The Chinese automaker recently launched its second BYD-branded ship, “Changzhou,” to ship thousands of new energy vehicles (NEVs) to Europe.
If you haven't heard of Build Your Dreams, or BYD, yet, where have you been? The Chinese auto behemoth has made easy progress over the past three years globally, expanding the availability of new powertrains under several marquees in new markets around the world.
At the heart of this expansion is an ever-growing presence in Europe, established long before the EU Commission imposed tariffs on such imports. Last January, BYD approved a ship called “Explorer No. 1” to transport its cars to Europe.
In April, BYD said it was exporting so many EVs that it would need more fleets—too many. To speed things up, BYD built its own ship called “Hefei,” which we saw in September and can carry about 7,000 cars.
At the same time, BYD was quickly assembling a second ship in China called “Changzhou,” which joined the fleet and is on its way to Europe and other NEV imports.
BYD's second NEV fleet goes to Europe
According to the general manager of BYD's Corporate Division, Wang Junbao, in Weibo today, the automaker officially took delivery of the Changzhou vessel after it left port for delivery on November 29. BYD commissioned the construction of the vessel from CIMC Raffles, a subsidiary of state-owned China International Marine Containers (CIMC), which also built the other two. dishes on board.
The “ro-ro car carrier” is 199.9 meters long and has the capacity to load 7,000 cars. The name comes from the Chinese city of Changzhou, where BYD has been building cars since early 2022. The nomenclature remains in the shape of the previous ship, Hefei, another city where the company builds cars.
Per Junbao, Changzhou's new vehicle carrier is now in operation, pulling nearly 5,000 BYD NEVs from Lianyungang and Taicang ports in Jiangsu province before heading overseas to Europe while “helping cool the planet by 1°C.”
Changzhou is BYD's second wholly-owned shipyard and the third in its growing fleet of export ships. By January 2024, BYD said it will have seven additional ro-ro vessels in operation in addition to Explorer No. 1 in the next two years, so we expect to see more ships making their maiden voyages in the next 13 months.
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