The Beijing Auto Show floor was electric with the unveiling of BYD’s Fang Cheng Bao Formula X, a 1,000-horsepower supercar that the company claims is 80% production-ready. Yet for all the horsepower on display, the real drama is playing out in the boardroom and on the trading floor. BYD’s H-shares closed the week at 101.20 HKD, sliding roughly 8% from Monday’s open near 110.00 HKD, as a seven-month streak of declining domestic sales continues to weigh on investor sentiment.
A Three-Pronged Luxury Assault
Fang Cheng Bao, BYD’s high-end off-road specialist, used the Beijing stage to pivot sharply toward performance sedans. Alongside the headline-grabbing Formula X—a two-seater sports car slated for a 2027 launch—the brand debuted three flat-bodied electric limousines under the Formula S banner. All three share a common 800-volt architecture with tri-motor all-wheel drive and up to 1,000 PS. The lineup spans a classic notchback saloon, a GT shooting-brake, and a larger SL variant, each stretching beyond five meters in length. Market entry in
The Formula X serves as the halo car, but the Formula S series is where the volume—and the margin recovery—must come. BYD’s premium push is a direct response to the brutal price war that has squeezed margins across China’s electric vehicle market. The company’s 2025 net profit fell 19%, the first annual decline since 2021, even as revenue hit a record 804 billion CNY and overtook Tesla’s top line.
Export Engine Revs, Home Market Stalls
BYD’s overseas operations are providing a crucial counterweight. The group sold just over 700,000 vehicles in the first quarter, with nearly 320,000 units going to export. European sales surged 270% in 2025 and added another 156% in the first quarter of 2026. Management has told analysts it is “highly confident” of exporting at least 1.5 million vehicles this year, with some internal targets stretching as high as 1.6 million.
New factories in Hungary, Brazil, and Turkey are designed to sidestep tariff risks and regionalize supply chains. Meanwhile, the company is rolling out a second-generation Blade Battery capable of over 1,000 kilometers of range, paired with a 1,500-kW ultra-fast charging architecture that can take a battery from 20% to 97% in under 12 minutes—even in cold weather. To back that technology, BYD plans to install roughly 20,000 fast-charging stations in China and 6,000 abroad within the next twelve months, a clear bid to win over combustion-engine holdouts.
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Fang Cheng Bao itself is growing at breakneck speed. The brand sold nearly 26,000 vehicles in March alone, a 222% year-on-year jump, and around 64,500 units in the first quarter, up almost 236%.
The 100 HKD Tightrope
Despite the upbeat export narrative, the stock remains under pressure. BYD’s H-shares (HK: 1211) now trade at 101.20 HKD, roughly 25% below their May 2025 peak and dangerously close to the psychologically critical 100 HKD mark. The intraday low this week touched 99.45 HKD. Resistance sits in the 110.00 to 112.50 HKD range—a level the stock couldn’t hold at the start of the week. The 52-week range is a wide chasm: a low of 88.50 HKD and a high of 159.27 HKD.
Analyst price targets span a broad 105 to 174 HKD, with most remaining bullish on the long-term story. But Nomura and Daiwa have trimmed their targets, citing persistent weakness in domestic demand. The bull case rests squarely on two pillars: overseas expansion and the new product cycle anchored by Blade Battery 2.0.
The first real test arrives on April 28, when BYD’s board meets in Shenzhen to approve first-quarter results. Investors will be watching closely to see whether the international revenue surge is translating into healthier margins—or whether the home-market price war is still eating into every yuan earned abroad. The Formula S launch in the third quarter of 2026 will be the next concrete milestone: if BYD can establish itself in the premium segment, it may finally offset some of the margin erosion from the mass-market battlefield.
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