From Off-Road Icons to Italian Assembly Lines: BYD’s Two-Pronged Escape Plan

BYD's premium off-road brand Fang Cheng Bao reports 190% sales jump, launches hybrid Shark pickup in China, and seeks European plants to bypass tariffs amid domestic decline.

BYD’s premium off-road brand Fang Cheng Bao is defying the gravity dragging down its parent. While the group’s Chinese sales have now fallen year-on-year for eight straight months, Fang Cheng Bao posted a blistering 190.25% jump in April, moving 29,138 vehicles. That performance is not just a bright spot — it is a strategic signal, as BYD simultaneously pushes a new hybrid pickup, the Shark, into its home market for the first time after an unusual overseas debut, and races to install European assembly lines to sidestep punishing tariffs.

The Shark’s China launch, announced by Fang Cheng Bao chief Xiong Tianbo, marks a reversal of BYD’s traditional playbook. The 430-plus horsepower pickup, which sprints to 100 km/h in 5.7 seconds and delivers a combined NEDC range of 840 kilometres, was originally aimed at export markets. In April alone, BYD sold 4,500 Sharks abroad, bringing the year-to-date total to 11,804 units. Now the model joins Fang Cheng Bao’s domestic line-up, which is also being completely retooled with flash-charging technology. Both the Bao 8 and Bao 5 now get the faster charging hardware, with prices starting at 305,800 yuan (roughly $45,020) for the smaller variant and 419,800 yuan for the larger one. The bigger version boasts a combined range of up to 1,380 kilometres; the smaller reaches 1,310 kilometres. A new suspension system, DiSus-P Ultra, even allows the car to keep moving on three wheels after a puncture and enables a tyre change in three minutes.

The push into higher-margin, technology-laden models is a direct response to the pressure cooker at home. BYD’s domestic sales contracted 15.51% in April, the eighth consecutive monthly decline. But outside China, the story is radically different. The group exported 135,098 passenger vehicles and pickups in April, a 70.9% surge that helped push the export share of total April sales (314,100 vehicles) to roughly 43%. In Australia, the Sealion 7 overtook Tesla’s Model Y, lifting BYD to the country’s second-best-selling marque that month. South Korea provided another milestone: BYD sold more than 10,000 vehicles there within 11 months, a record for any imported brand.

That export boom, however, has not protected the bottom line. First-quarter net profit slumped 55% year-on-year, and last year BYD cut roughly 100,000 jobs globally to align its cost base with an export target of 1.5 million vehicles. The biggest expense item on the horizon is Europe, where imported Chinese battery-electric cars face an additional 17% EU tariff on top of the standard 10% — a combined 27% levy that BYD wants to neutralise with local production.

Negotiations are under way with Stellantis and other European manufacturers to acquire underused plants. Two Italian sites — Cassino and Mirafiori — are at the centre of the talks. Cassino produced just 2,916 vehicles in the first quarter of 2026, a 37.4% drop, making it the kind of stranded asset BYD can repurpose quickly. Crucially, the company is insisting on 100% ownership and full operational control, shunning the joint-venture model it has used elsewhere. That preference for vertical integration mirrors its approach to supply chains and quality standards.

Meanwhile, BYD is already building its own greenfield factory in Szeged, Hungary, where series production is scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2026. Adding Italian capacity would give the group multiple European hubs, reducing exposure to regulatory shifts and allowing it to flex output according to demand. There is also interest in Maserati, which management described as “very interesting”, though no purchase agreement exists yet. For the Denza premium brand, BYD has poached talent from Porsche ahead of its UK market launch later this year.

The charging infrastructure needed to support these ambitions is also being built. BYD plans to install 6,000 flash-charging stations outside China over the next twelve months, half of them in Europe. The units will use the CCS2 standard and be open to vehicles from other manufacturers — a move that could accelerate EV adoption and, in turn, demand for BYD’s own plug-in models.

On the Hong Kong stock exchange, the product offensive did not immediately impress. Shares ended the session at HK$102.90, down 2.74%. The market’s message was clear: flash-charging SUVs and factory deals are promising pieces of a puzzle, but BYD must now prove that the home-market squeeze is temporary and that its twin-track strategy — premium brands at home, local production abroad — can deliver the margin relief investors are waiting for.