China’s BYD aims to be world’s biggest car firm within five years

EV maker aims to overtake Toyota, as it plans to spend £1.8bn to build five-minute flash chargers in Europe

The Chinese car company BYD has said it aims to be the world’s biggest automaker within the next five years.

Targeting Toyota’s long-held top spot, BYD’s founder and chair, Wang Chuanfu said he was confident it could overtake global rivals through rapid advances in battery technology and fast charging, as well as growing production overseas, including Europe.

“BYD will truly become the number one automaker globally in terms of ​scale in five years,” he said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Shenzhen.

Overnight the company announced plans to spend nearly £1.8bn in Europe to develop infrastructure for five-minute “flash charging” of its cars.

The company, based in southern China , overtook Tesla last year as the world’s biggest EV maker by sales. In May it sold more than 160,000 vehicles abroad, up 80% from the year before. It aims to sell 1.5m vehicles overseas this year, up more than 40% from last year’s 1.05m.

In 2025, Toyota retained its crown as the world’s top-selling carmaker with 11.3m vehicles, while BYD sold 4.8m .

The company’s top international executive, Stella Li, separately told reporters in London that the company would start assembling cars at its new plant in Hungary in the fourth quarter of this year.