BYD’s Great Tang Garners 150,000 Orders, but a 24% China Sales Slide and a Stock Near Rock Bottom Tell a Different Story

BYD is simultaneously running two films with very different plots. On one reel, the Chinese electric-vehicle giant has just racked up 150,000 pre-orders for its new Great Tang eSUV — an internal record — and seen European sales explode by 270% in 2025. On the other, the stock has slumped to within a hair’s breadth of its 52-week low, closing at €9.03 on Wednesday, just 0.89% above the trough of €8.95. The 12-month decline stands at more than 36%, and the relative strength index of 27.3 flags a deeply oversold condition.

Behind the market’s funk lies a brutal home-market reality. In May, BYD’s domestic deliveries fell 24%, dragging down an otherwise encouraging global picture. Worldwide, the company eked out a slight month-on-month increase — the first in nine months — thanks almost entirely to a record 160,000 vehicles shipped overseas. That export engine kept the headline numbers respectable, but it can’t hide the pressure on margins from China’s ongoing price war, a contest that has seen Tesla reclaim the pure-EV crown in the first quarter with roughly 358,000 units delivered.

The strategic response is taking shape on several fronts at once, and none is more ambitious than the build-out of proprietary charging infrastructure. BYD has just celebrated its 100,000th delivery in the UK, where it now commands a 7.2% share of the EV and hybrid market (January–April period), and plans to install 300 fast-charging stations across the country by year-end. The second-generation Blade battery — capable of juicing from 10% to 97% in nine minutes — is the technological core of that push. In Canada, the company is constructing a 1,500-kW charging network, a move that deepens customer dependence on the BYD ecosystem and creates a moat that pure vehicle assemblers will find hard to match.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying BYD?

South Korea is the next growth frontier. At the Busan Mobility Show on 26 June, BYD will present the Sea Lion 6, the first plug-in hybrid to use its DM-i system in the local market. The target is to sell around 3,000 PHEV units a month in the second half of 2026 — triple the current EV volume in the country. That pivot to hybrid technology reflects a pragmatic recognition that infrastructure gaps still hamper full-electric adoption in many markets.

Europe remains the jewel in the expansion crown, even as political headwinds mount. Sales surged 270% last year, and the search for a second production site — with Spain on the shortlist — is aimed at dodging EU tariffs and localising supply chains. The Hungarian factory, originally expected earlier, has slipped to the fourth quarter of 2026. Meanwhile, Brazil’s new plant, BYD’s largest outside Asia, is on track to start rolling out vehicles before the end of this year.

All of this activity has done little to lift the equity’s price. The stock is trading more than 17% below its 200-day moving average, and the market capitalisation of roughly €84 billion represents a hefty discount to earlier valuations. With an RSI well below 30, history suggests a stabilisation phase often follows, provided the underlying business is sound. For a company that has just booked 150,000 pre-orders for a single model and is simultaneously building a cross-border charging network, the operational substance appears to be intact. The question is whether the market will wait for the story to catch up with the stock.