BYD is advancing on luxury on two fronts at once — rolling out its own autonomous driving silicon while scrambling to deliver a flagship SUV that was supposed to hit showrooms a month ago. The contrast captures the tension between long-term ambition and near-term execution that now defines the Chinese electric vehicle giant.
The chip in question is the Xuanji A3, a 4-nanometer processor developed in-house for Level 3 and Level 4 autonomy. Configured in a triple-chip array, it delivers up to 2,100 TOPS of computing power — a figure that places BYD firmly in the territory of self-driving contenders like Nvidia’s Drive Thor. For a company that has historically relied on external suppliers for semiconductor solutions, the move signals a strategic shift toward vertical integration in one of the industry’s most competitive battlegrounds.
At the same time, BYD is pushing into the premium segment from the vehicle side. The Great Tang SUV, priced between 250,000 and 320,000 Yuan in pre-sales, finally launched on June 8 after a delay from an originally planned May debut. More than 100,000 pre-orders had piled up within two weeks of the announcement, but the company acknowledged that demand for models using its Flash-Charge platform is outstripping production capacity for the second-generation Blade battery. Some dealers reported receiving neither vehicles nor display models until the last moment. The Great Tang’s technical specs — a 1,000-volt architecture, rear-wheel steering, intelligent dual-chamber air suspension, a claimed electric range of up to 950 kilometers under China’s test cycle, and a 3.9-second sprint to 100 km/h — leave little doubt about its premium ambitions.
The new flagship sedan, code-named “Dahan” (Big Han), is also in the works. BYD’s Dynasty division sales chief Lu Tian released teaser images on Monday, positioning the model above the recently launched Great Tang SUV in the hierarchy. Together, the two vehicles aim to stake out a higher-margin territory that Beijing’s brutal price war has made increasingly elusive for pure volume players.
That margin imperative is underscored by BYD’s May sales breakdown. Total deliveries reached 383,453 units, a modest 0.3% year-on-year increase but a solid 19% month-on-month rebound. The real story, however, lies in the split: exports surged more than 80% year-on-year to 160,644 vehicles, while domestic sales slid 24% to about 223,000 units. The overseas channel is now delivering the growth and the pricing power that the home market no longer provides.
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Citi responded by initiating a 30-day “Positive Catalyst Watch” on BYD shares, arguing that the improving export mix and new premium models could push second-quarter earnings above consensus estimates. But the stock is telling a different story. At €9.84, it sits just 3.5% above its 52-week low of €9.51 and around 78% below the year’s peak of €44.99. The relative strength index of 38 points to continued selling pressure, and the share has lost roughly 10% since January.
On the brand-building front, BYD vice president Li Ke met with Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali and FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem at the Monaco Grand Prix over the weekend. No official deal was announced, but market observers speculate about a potential partnership or even an equity stake in an existing team, such as Alpine. BYD has expressed interest in the technological and cultural overlap between motorsport and electrification.
Meanwhile, the first 100 electric T75 trucks arrived at the Mexican port of Lázaro Cárdenas, underlining BYD’s ambitions in the North American commercial vehicle market — a quiet but strategic flank alongside the passenger car push.
For investors, the question is whether these fundamental building blocks — the in-house chip, the premium SUV, the export machine — can stabilise a stock that has shed three-quarters of its value from the 2024 high. The Great Tang’s production ramp in the coming weeks will be the first concrete test. If BYD can clear its order backlog without cannibalising other models in the Flash-Charge family, the narrative of a company that controls both its hardware and its software may finally find a footing in the share price.
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