BYD’s European Charging Blitz Meets a Political Storm as Home Profits Collapse

Chinese EV giant BYD races to install 3,000 ultra-fast chargers in Europe within a year, facing a domestic sales slump and labor controversy as overseas exports surge 71%.

BYD is racing to install 3,000 ultra-fast charging stations across Europe within the next twelve months, a technological gambit designed to bolster its overseas expansion just as a labour controversy threatens to derail its continental ambitions. The Chinese electric vehicle giant unveiled the plan in Paris alongside the launch of its premium Denza Z9GT estate, priced from €115,000, which will be the first model in Europe compatible with the new 1,500-kilowatt chargers capable of replenishing 70 percent of battery capacity in just five minutes.

The charging offensive comes at a critical juncture. BYD’s net profit plunged more than 55 percent in the first quarter of 2026 to approximately 4 billion yuan, as an aggressive price war with rivals including Xiaomi and Geely squeezed margins for over a year. Revenue slipped to roughly 150 billion yuan during the same period, though the figure still managed to beat analysts’ subdued expectations.

At home, the picture has darkened further. Beijing’s decision to scrap tax incentives for plug-in hybrids with limited electric range dealt a heavy blow to BYD’s domestic deliveries in that segment, which collapsed by 62 percent. The company’s overall market share in China shrank to 26 percent, and by early this year had fallen as low as 7.1 percent in certain periods, with competitors like Volkswagen and Geely racing ahead. The government has also capped the maximum tax exemption for electric vehicles at 15,000 yuan per unit.

April’s global sales figures underscored the two-speed nature of BYD’s business. The group sold roughly 321,000 new-energy vehicles last month, a modest uptick from March but a year-on-year decline of about 15 percent — the eighth consecutive monthly drop. Yet overseas deliveries hit a record of approximately 134,000 units in April, surging nearly 71 percent from a year earlier. Since the start of 2025, total exports have exceeded 455,000 vehicles, and management has raised its full-year overseas sales target to 1.5 million units.

Europe is the linchpin of that strategy. BYD doubled its new EU registrations to nearly 30,000 cars at the start of the year. Test production began in January at its Hungarian factory in Szeged, with a second plant in Turkey set to follow soon. But the rapid expansion has drawn scrutiny from Brussels. The European Parliament is now examining allegations of poor working conditions at the Hungarian construction site, based on a report from the NGO China Labor Watch. Workers are said to be labouring seven days a week in twelve-hour shifts. The contractor involved belongs to the Jinjiang Group, a company whose subsidiary was already implicated in a 2024 labour scandal at a BYD project in Brazil, which local authorities are still investigating.

To offset the domestic slump, BYD is betting heavily on new models. The electric SUV Datang, unveiled in Beijing, racked up over 30,000 pre-orders on its first day. More than ten new vehicles are due to roll out in the coming months, all built around the second-generation Blade battery technology that enables ultra-fast charging. In China, BYD plans to have 20,000 of its high-speed charging stations operational by year-end.

The US market remains largely off-limits due to steep import barriers, so BYD is channelling its export push into Europe, Southeast Asia and South America. In Brazil, the company posted nearly 7,000 new registrations in April, a monthly record.

BYD’s Hong Kong-listed shares dipped to around HK$103 in early trading this week. Analysts project annual earnings growth of 23 percent through 2028, but that forecast hinges on a smooth European rollout. The EU Commission has yet to issue an official response to the Hungarian labour allegations. Any intervention from Brussels could jeopardise the ambitious timeline for BYD’s European production plans.