Won't enter the US and still wants the sales crown! BYD's Stella Li says it will overtake Toyota and Volkswagen within five years

BYD executive vice president and international business head Stella Li laid out the company's next global strategic goal at a summit in Singapore, planning to overtake Toyota and Volkswagen within five years to become the world's largest automaker.

She said BYD will stick to its overseas strategy, continuing to expand in Europe, Central America, South America, Asia and Oceania, and stressed that the company leads in energy storage, solar and batteries, with battery technology one of its core strengths and its advantages going beyond cars.

On the US market, Li made clear BYD will not enter for now, because the US plans to legislate tighter restrictions on Chinese connected vehicles and vehicle software entering the country, with even Polestar, which builds cars in the US, forced to shift to other markets.

She said BYD wants a business environment with certainty and a clear outlook, since only then can it take the initiative to invest.

This is not the first time BYD has called for topping the world in five years, since chairman Wang Chuanfu announced the goal of becoming the world's largest automaker within five years at the June shareholder meeting, and Li said in a July interview that the ambitious target rests on organic growth and can be achieved without the US market, adding that no acquisitions are needed to drive volume.

Data shows Toyota Group sold about 11.32 million vehicles globally in 2025 and Volkswagen Group about 8.98 million, against BYD's 4.6 million. In the first half of 2026 Toyota sold 5.39 million and BYD 1.81 million, a gap still nearly three times. Closing it within five years would require BYD to sell more than a million extra vehicles every year.

BYD's overseas push, however, is fierce and will be the core driver of any catch-up, with plants already running in Thailand and Uzbekistan, the Hungary plant starting trial production in January and moving to mass production in the fourth quarter, and Brazil and Indonesia plants under construction.

In September, BYD's new-energy passenger car wholesale volume hit 456,713 units, far ahead of the field, including 179,877 units sold overseas, up 153.9 percent year on year.