Has BYD peaked? Chinese giant to miss first big sales target in years - reports

BYD's plans for domestic and global domination appear to have hit their first hurdle, with the Chinese giant reportedly set to miss its lofty 2025 sales target.

Interestingly, the issue isn’t the international markets the brand hopes to conquer, but rather a slowdown in its home market where increased competition is denting sales.

The problem for BYD is that, of the 5.5 million models it hoped to sell in 2025, just 800,000 were to come from international markets. The rest depended on China.

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The news comes courtesy of US outlet Automotive News. Which has the data and has crunched the numbers.

According to the site, the brand’s international sales remain on track to at least meet, but more likely exceed, their target, helped in a small way by BYD’s success in Australia.

The fast-growing Chinese giant shifted 8156 cars here last month, bringing its year-to-date tally to 23,355 - up 367.9 percent month on month and 144.6 percent on the same time last year.

Leading the charge in Australia last month were the BYD Shark 6 (2993 sales)  the Sealion 7 (1795 sales) and the Sealion 6 (1604).

But of far more importance to BYD’s global goal of shifting 5.5 million units this year is its performance in China, where sales are now going backwards — falling a reported eight percent in June, despite heavy discounting, when exports and commercial sales are excluded. According to Automotive News, BYD is among the biggest losers of market share so far in 2025, while Geely is the biggest winner.

Still, we’re talking big numbers, with BYD selling more than two million cars over the first six months of 2025.

But the news now suggests BYD will miss its 5.5m-vehicle target. According to Automotive News, the company would need to sell 560,000 units per month every month to December to hit the target, far exceeding its biggest sales month on record, which was almost 515,000 units.