BYD completed its massive fleet, now able to export 1 million cars a year. But not just from China

BYD completed its massive fleet of eight vessels and reached an annual transport capacity of over 1 million cars. The final car carrier to join the fleet, BYD Jinan, went into operation last week, the company announced on WeChat.

The Shenzhen-based automaker completed the fleet in under two years. The first vessel, BYD Explorer No. 1, was delivered in January 2024.

All the car carriers are RoRo ships, meaning they are designed to carry wheeled cargo – the vehicles roll on/roll off themselves without the need for containers. BYD ships have a capacity of 7,200 or 9,000 cars based on the type of vessel.

(BYD Shenzhen RoRo vessel loading cars.)

The BYD fleet list:
BYD Explorer No.1
BYD Hefei
BYD Changzhou
BYD Shenzhen
BYD Xi’an
BYD Changsha
BYD Zhengzhou
BYD JinanAside from the newly launched Jinan, all seven ships are already supplying the world with BYD products. BYD Hefei is currently unloading cars in Europe before returning to China. BYD Xi’an is expected to arrive in Barcelona later this week. BYD Shenzhen and Changsha are also on their way from China to Europe.

(BYD Jinan RoRo vessel. Credit: BYD video)

But BYD is not exporting just China-made cars. BYD Zhengzhou, with a capacity of 7,000 vehicles, brought BYD right-hand drive cars from Thailand to the UK this week and is now en route to unload in Belgium, according to MarineTraffic data shared by Felix Hamer. This is the first time BYD has exported cars from its Thailand plant.

Thailand, unlike China, is not subject to EU countervailing tariffs imposed on Chinese EV makers after the EC concluded its anti-subsidy investigation last October. BYD is subject to an additonal 17% tariff on top of the existing 10% tariff.

Ref: BYD completed its massive fleet, now able to export 1 million cars a year. But not just from China (carnewschina)