Despite tariffs on imported Chinese EVs in place in Europe, BYD is making good on its vow to continue its global expansion and is showing no signs of deterrence. The Chinese automaker recently put its second BYD-branded ship, “Changzhou,” into operation to export thousands more new energy vehicles (NEVs) to Europe.
If you haven’t heard of Build Your Dreams, or BYD, by now, where have you been? The Chinese automotive behemoth has easily made the most progress the past three years on a global scale, expanding the availability of new energy vehicles under several marques to new markets around the world.
At the core of this expansion is an ever-growing presence in Europe, which was established long before the EU Commission implemented tariffs on those imports. Last January, BYD commissioned a ship called “Explorer No. 1” to transport its vehicles to Europe.
By April, BYD said it was exporting so many EVs that it would need more ships—a lot more. To speed things up, BYD built its own vessel called “Hefei,” which we got a peek at in September and can transport up to 7,000 vehicles.
At the same time, BYD was quickly assembling a second ship in China called “Changzhou,” which has joined the fleet and it on its way to Europe with even more NEV imports.
BYD’s second NEV carrier ship sets sail for Europe
According to the general manager of BYD’s Corporate Division, Wang Junbao, on Weibo today, the automaker officially received delivery of the Changzhou ship after leaving port for delivery on November 29. The BYD commissioned the ship build from CIMC Raffles, a subsidiary of state-owned China International Marine Containers (CIMC), who also built the other two vessels in the fleet.
The “ro-ro car carrier” is 199.9 meters long and has a loading capacity of 7,000 vehicles. The name comes from the Chinese city of Changzhou, where BYD has been building vehicles since early 2022. The nomenclature stays on trend with the previous ship, Hefei, another city where the company builds vehicles.
Per Junbao, the new Changzhou car carrier ship is now in operation, hauling close to 5,000 BYD NEVs at the ports of Lianyungang and Taicang in Jiangsu province before heading overseas to Europe while “helping to cool the planet by 1°C.”
The Changzhou is BYD’s second wholly owned ship and the third in its growing fleet of export vessels. In January 2024, BYD said it would have seven additional ro-ro vessels in operation in addition to Explorer No. 1 over the next two years, so we expect to see many more ships take their maiden voyages over the next 13 months.
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