BYD $BYDDY no longer wants to sell only passenger cars in Europe

· 14h

BYD $BYDDY no longer wants to sell only passenger cars in Europe. Now it is entering the truck market.

The new electric tractor ET 44 is said to have a range of almost 600 km, around 1000 horsepower, and charging up to 1.5 MW. From 20 to 80% it should take about 20 minutes with a sufficiently powerful charger.

So it's no longer just about passenger cars. BYD is now starting to step on the toes of Daimler Truck $DTG.DE and other European manufacturers.

Daimler still has a strong position and the eActros 600 is a solid product, but BYD doesn't want to remain dependent on imports from China. It plans to manufacture trucks directly in Europe, so over time it could start to compete not only on technology but also on price.

With passenger cars, we saw how quickly Chinese brands were able to establish themselves. Now it will be interesting to see whether something similar starts to happen in freight transport.

Do any of you hold Daimler Truck or other truck manufacturers in your portfolio? Do you think China will start taking this market from European manufacturers as well?

A community member's personal view, not investment advice. Community Guidelines

Milan Vicáň @milanvican 12h

I'd say they're going to get a real lip-smacking here, because trucks are business, and for business to be profitable, they have to keep moving. I don't feel like looking up specific numbers, even with AI, but on average it's definitely hundreds of kilometers a day, which requires maintenance and everything around it. So those who buy trucks have completely different requirements and priorities for the supplier than for passenger cars. And BYD can't just conjure that up here. So I'd like to know where their customers can charge that truck in those 20 minutes - that's the main question before the customer even stops to think about it.

Martin Sedláček @martinsedlacek 12h

Yeah, this is a good reminder. For trucks, I think service, parts availability, and especially charging infrastructure may be even more important than the specs themselves. Those 20 minutes look nice on paper, but the question is where a fleet can realistically get 1.5MW charging today. Daimler, Volvo, or Scania have a big head start over BYD in this.

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