BYD is accelerating its UK expansion with a fleet and broker strategy centred on value, a rapid product rollout and brand awareness.
Speaking to Broker News, Steve Beattie, UK Sales and Marketing Director, described BYD’s positioning as “premium accessible”.
“Our cars, from a base spec, are absolutely fully loaded, whether that’s 360-degree camera, panoramic roof, heated seats or the rotatable screen. So for me, that’s the premium bit; it’s our tech.”
He added: “If you look at the pricing, and how strong and how competitive our pricing is across the product range, I think that is really the accessible bit.”
For fleet customers, BYD’s model line-up is growing fast. “If we look at fleet, my real opportunity with the product is that I’ve got Seal and Sealion 7. We see those cars do really well. You’ve seen similar models from Tesla, you’ve seen similar models from Polestar. But residual value on the Seal is holding up really well.
“And then Sealion 7 was only launched in March, and we already took 1,000 orders in the past six weeks.”
Speaking at the launch of the Dolphin Surf, a hatchback to rival the Renault 5, Beattie said: “This is our sixth model within two years. As you know, there’s another couple of models to come by the end of the year. So that’ll be over eight models in the two and a half years since launch.”
Supporting this momentum is an aggressive marketing approach. “We have a strong always-on message. We’re making sure we’re on telly at least every quarter… Not just traditional TV, but all the TV on demand channels.”
He points to BYD’s influencer marketing, something he describes as culturally rooted in China: “China sells 4.2 million cars, right? So they’ve got to have some great ideas. Let’s bring some of those over here.”
The impact of the UEFA Euro sponsorship
BYD’s recent UEFA Euro sponsorship has pushed brand awareness among fleets and drivers. “There’s three things about this sponsorship. One of them is selling lots of cars. That’s absolutely priority number one. Number two is growing brand awareness. And number three is generating leads.
“The last survey that we did, we had 49% prompted awareness… which is really strong for a brand that’s been going for just over two years.”
Quizzed about BYD’s leasing broker strategy, Beattie said:
“Brokers are highly important to us. We offer terms to leasing companies, and we also work with a number of brokers.”
BYD’s presence at fleet and broker industry events underlines this intent, he added. BYD was the Headline Partner at the most recent Broker News Awards, for example, BYD’s National Contract Hire & Leasing Manager Claudio de Freitas presenting the Broker of the Year Award to Synergy Car Leasing (see below):
BYD’s retail share is running at 42% with 38% going to fleet and “the remainder includes demonstrators, rental, and promotability channels”, he added.
For Beattie, BYD’s goal is clear: to create a profitable ecosystem that works for brokers, leasing companies, and retail partners.
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Tristan Young is an award winning journalist with more than 25 years’ experience reporting on the automotive industry focussing predominantly on fleet and retail. As a self-confessed petrol-head, Tristan has a weakness for car classifieds. When he’s not writing about the automotive industry, he can usually be found outdoors with a small pack of border collies.
