BYD is one of the largest electric car manufacturers. The Chinese group is now daring to make the leap to Europe. In order to convince customers of the vehicles, the company is cooperating with the rental company Sixt. Tens of thousands of vehicles are to be added to the fleet over the next six years.
The rental company Sixt has ordered “several thousand” electric cars from the Chinese manufacturer BYD and has agreed to buy “around 100,000 more electric vehicles in the next six years”. Sixt customers in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Great Britain should be able to rent an electric car from BYD as early as the fourth quarter, i.e. from October, as both companies announced. Sixt recently announced that it would “significantly” increase the proportion of e-cars in its fleet.
BYD will also start selling its cars in Europe in the fall: the Han sedan, the Tang SUV and the compact SUV Atto 3. Sixt will include the SUV in its fleet, the company announced. “Our goal is to inspire Sixt customers with our latest products and innovations in electric vehicles,” said BYD manager Michael Shu.
To this day, BYD, Xpeng, Aiways, SAIC and other manufacturers from the Middle Kingdom that are hardly known in this country are feeling their way rather than flooding the market with electric vehicles. In the meantime, however, the announcements are increasing. The car manufacturer Nio wants to inform about its plans for Europe on Friday in Berlin.
At Sixt, around 70 to 90 percent of all cars should be electric by 2030. The company is building its own charging infrastructure for this purpose. Sixt manager Vinzenz Pflanzen explained that BYD was the world’s largest vehicle manufacturer in the field of electromobility with more than one million vehicles produced in the period from January to August 2022.
BYD (Build your dreams) was founded in 1995 as a manufacturer of rechargeable batteries. According to its own statements, the company is now represented in over 70 countries and regions. It is listed on the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges. Head office in Europe is Rotterdam.