BYD to launch a second new EV brand in 2023

SHANGHAI — China’s BYD Co will launch a new “professional and personal” electric car brand in 2023, a senior executive said on Thursday as the automaker expands its range following a year of strong sales.

Brian Luo, the company’s branding assistant general manager, made the comments at a media event. The new brand will be an addition to Yangwang, a premium brand set for launch in the first quarter of 2023 that it announced last month.

Having ditched gasoline vehicles from its product mix this year, BYD has been able to capitalize on a range of incentives for electric cars offered by the central and local governments.

It has also been making a wider global push, selling its pure electric to markets including Norway, New Zealand, Singapore, Brazil, Costa Rica and Colombia.

Luo said BYD has sold cars to 35 countries outside China since it started exporting to Norway last May.

The automaker, which also produces plug-in hybrid cars, was the top-selling car brand in China in the first four weeks of November, brokerage data showed, outperforming Volkswagen in a reversal that highlights the pressure on legacy brands in the world’s largest auto market.

(Reporting by Zoey Zhang and Brenda Goh; Writing by Liz Lee; editing by Christian Schmollinger and Jason Neely)