Ford Rival BYD Eyes Massive Growth Outside of China By 2030

China-based automaker and Ford rival BYD has grown by leaps and bounds over the past couple of years, and is even on track to surpass both Ford and Honda in global sales in 2025 – a monumental feat given the fact that it doesn’t currently sell vehicles in several major markets, including the U.S. Regardless, BYD continues to expand its production and sales footprint throughout places like South America and Europe, but it has even bigger ambitions than that, it seems.

In fact, according to a new report from Automotive News, BYD is aiming to expand its presence outside of China to the point where half of the vehicles it sells would come from those foreign markets by 2030. The company is looking to achieve much of that growth in Europe and Latin America, it explained to investors in a recent meeting – markets that it calls “pivotal” to achieving that plan. Last year, BYD sold 4.27 million vehicles globally, with 90 percent of that tally coming from the domestic China market.

BYD believes that it has the right mix of affordable hybrids and EVs to make this rather daunting task a reality, which would also make it one of the world’s largest automakers, alongside the likes of Volkswagen and Toyota. It’s an even more difficult goal given the fact that 100 percent tariffs imposed by former President Joe Biden on Chinese EVs have thus far kept those models out of the U.S., but BYD’s rapid expansion has certainly caught the eye of American automotive executives.

That includes Ford CEO Jim Farley, who has spoken about BYD on multiple occasions as of late, noting that “we have to compete and win against BYD,” a company that he targeted as the main threat in “a global race” to producing and selling affordable electric vehicles while speaking at a recent investor conference.