BYD Chases 2 Million Overseas Sales as Brazil Plant Adds Third Shift

BYD aims to hire 1,500 workers in Brazil and targets 1.9-2.0 million overseas sales in 2026, as US resistance grows and its shares lag.

BYD is pushing ahead with a twin-track expansion that pairs aggressive overseas sales targets with fresh manufacturing muscle in Latin America, even as political headwinds build in North America and its share price continues to lag.

At its Camaçari complex in Brazil, the Chinese automaker intends to hire 1,500 workers to staff a third shift. Roughly 500 of those recruits are already on board, with another 500 positions tied to press, welding and paint shops still under construction. The site currently employs 8,000 people directly.

The hiring wave sits alongside a product offensive that stretches from the mass market to the luxury tier. BYD is preparing a home-market launch for the Shark plug-in hybrid under its Fang Cheng Bao marque, while on the technology front it has set 2027 for the debut of its first solid-state battery vehicle. Battery unit FinDreams aims to begin limited output of sulfide cells the same year.

Export Ambitions Take Center Stage

Management is targeting worldwide deliveries outside China of 1.9 million to 2.0 million units for full-year 2026, according to media reports — a figure that would nearly double the prior-year tally. Notes from Deutsche Bank and Citi, taken from company discussions, point to further growth beyond 2.5 million vehicles abroad in 2027. Scaling globally has become the central plank for defending margins, with a fierce price war at home weighing on profitability across the sector.

The operational groundwork for those goals was laid by recent record numbers. In August 2026, BYD sold 440,293 new-energy vehicles, up 17.84 percent from a year earlier. Exports did the heavy lifting: overseas shipments jumped 134.5 percent to a monthly record of 189,466 units. Across the first eight months of the year, foreign sales totaled 1,162,260 vehicles.

Charging infrastructure is advancing in parallel. BYD plans to install 90,000 fast-charging stations by 2028, rolling out 20,000 by the end of 2026, another 30,000 during 2027 and a final tranche of 40,000 in 2028.

Washington Opening, Washington Resistance

The company's international push has even reached the diplomatic stage. Chinese government officials weighed including BYD in the business delegation for the summit between President Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in Washington, scheduled for today, September 24, Bloomberg reported ahead of the meeting.

Not everyone in the US capital is welcoming. Resistance to Chinese automakers is hardening in Washington, and the Senate is pursuing efforts to enshrine a permanent ban on Chinese cars in law.

Market Still Discounts the Story

Investors have greeted the expansion plans with restraint. The stock closed yesterday at EUR 8.90 and was recently quoted at EUR 8.91, down 17 percent since the start of the year. Over the past twelve months the shares have lost 25 percent, leaving a wide gap to the 52-week high of EUR 12.49.