BYD’s pragmatic approach to the automotive world will keep it strong and make it stronger

BYD is no stranger to our market. The brand has seen significant sales growth over the past two years, having sold over 10,000 vehicles ever since its local distributorship was taken over by ACMobility, the Ayala Corporation’s mobility arm.

It must have a lot in order for it to easily outgrow other Chinese automotive brands, plenty of which have also entered our market over the past decade, in just two years, shouldn’t it?

We recently got to visit the brand’s home country of China, one that we’ve been to many times, and with different automotive brands each time. But what better way to appreciate the world’s largest automotive market than with the country’s largest automotive company?

For starters, let’s learn a bit about BYD’s history, shall we?

It’s a fairly young brand, established in 1994 as a battery manufacturer, with its first automotive product entering production in 2005. It entered the world of electrification with its first plug-in hybrid (PHEV) in 2008, followed by its first battery electric vehicle (BEV) a year later in 2009. This surely signaled what the brand had in store for the future.

As for the Philippines, BYD was actually already in our market way before Chinese automakers became well accepted in recent years, entering in 2013 under Solar Transport and Automotive Resources Corporation (STAR), which is now a dealer for select BYD locations. You can still find a handful of BYD models from that era on our roads today.

In 2023, the brand relaunched under the Ayala Corporation’s AC Motors, now known as ACMobility, and also a distributor of Kia vehicles, and formerly of Volkswagen. It signaled a new chapter for the brand, growing significantly since the takeover. 

Despite that, the brand still has a long way to go in order to truly compete with the likes of Toyota and Mitsubishi which are the two largest automakers in the Philippine market, and for how they plan to do that, we learned during the recent trip.

Our first stop for the trip was the brand’s main headquarters in Shenzhen, where we were welcomed by BYD vehicles of different generations, filling-up every single parking space available. That was already a good sneak peek at how much the brand has grown and improved over the past decades.

Here we were able to sit with Liu Xueliang, the company’s General Manager for Auto Sales Division in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region and CEO of BYD Japan. And yes, BYD actually has a presence in Japan where it even won the 2025 Japan EV of the Year for the Seal, quite a feat for what’s a growing brand in a country called home by the world’s most established automakers.

We learned from him that BYD considers the Philippines as a high potential market and it’s definitely yielding good results, proven by the amount of BYD vehicles you can see traversing Philippine roads. And in case you’re wondering what’s with the quick and consecutive car launches, it’s all based on what they think our market wants and needs. It’s working, right?

After that, we did a quick walkaround of the brand’s permanent exhibit where we got to learn a bit about its innovations in automotive technology: including batteries, vehicle platforms for different applications, vehicle suspensions, and of course, branding with a showcase of their different brands.

READ | What’s in a name: BYD and its trio of sub-brands

Later that day, we boarded a plane and headed up north to the city of Zhengzhou in Central China, another important city for BYD. Here we visited two facilities that certainly flex what the brand is capable of, BYD DiSpace and the BYD All-Terrain Circuit.

The former is pretty much a showcase of the brand’s past, present, and future, as well as the different technologies and processes involved for the planning and production of the cars we see on the road today.

From samples of a half clay car concept, to balls that represent design language, scent samples for car interiors, a deconstructed BYD Seal, sample production processes, and explanations of the brand’s tech, the BYD DiSpace has it all.

Oh, and we’re not done. The space also functions as a vehicle showroom, showing off a model from every BYD line, from their most affordable to the more premium options. You have the Ocean Series, the Dynasty Series, you have the Fangchengbao, Denza, and Yangwang sub-brands.

Also on showcase were updated and higher spec versions of BYD models available in our market such as the updated Seagull and Dolphin, a higher-spec variant of the recently launched Tang DM-i, and some other models that we really want to see hitting Philippine showrooms.

It won’t do justice to just say “other,” those are the Han DM-i, a plug-in hybrid version of the brand’s fully electric flagship sedan; then there’s the Song L which definitely looks very attractive, and the Sealion 06 DM-i which will surely make you take a second look.

But what gained the most attention was surely the Seal 06 wagon which was quickly surrounded by our motoring media companions and even executives from the brand itself. Their request? Simple. Prove that the Philippine market wants it, and they’ll deliver.

But what really impresses us, seeing what was at the HQ and now at the BYD DiSpace, is the brand’s no non-sense approach to the automotive industry. We saw cars, we saw what’s underneath cars, we saw the tech they use and plan to use in cars. We did not see dog robots, or pretty much anything too good to be true.

Everything we saw works, will work, will be easy to understand by the common man, and is something that shows that BYD knows what it’s aiming for in such a highly competitive market. And oh, who can forget about the well-stocked gift shop below.

So, how do all these things work? That we got to test at the BYD All-Terrain Circuit which basically culminated our five-day trip. The newly-opened facility is an even bigger showcase of the brand’s capabilities in product development, and the capabilities of the products themselves. 

From the Sand Incline and Water Floating Test with the Yangwang U8, a few hot laps on the track with the Yangwang U9 supercar, an Off-Road Experience with the Fangchengbao Bao 5, learning to drift on the Low Friction Circle with the Denza D9 GT, and an autocross-style drive with the BYD Tang DM-i and Seal EV on the Dynamic Paddock, we were able to not only see, but also experience firsthand what BYD has under its sleeve.

READ: The BYD All-Terrain Circuit in Zhengzhou, China shows us what BYD vehicles are capable of

And after a few days of exposure with the latest BYD products, one thing we noticed? No more rotating touchscreens. What we always thought of as a gimmick has finally died. We first saw it on the Philippine-spec BYD Tang DM-i, and are expecting to see it happen to more of their new models. 

Why does this matter? It’s proof that BYD listens to its customers, showing that feedback is important to them and they will try their best to improve and truly meet what the market wants. 

And that brings us to this: it’s admittedly a bit too early to call BYD’s resurgence in the Philippine market a success story. While things are definitely working very well both here and abroad, we still should give them a few years.

What we’re already seeing in China is a good sign of things to come, and with new models coming left and right to meet market demands, it shows that BYD is truly serious in the game. Maybe they might be moving too fast, but their pragmatic approach to all things automotive will be their recipe to real success.

_{Photos by Julian Panlilio}