BYD decided at some point in recent years that it would be more economical for it to buy some giant car-carrying ships than to keep paying shipping companies to carry its cars to markets around the world.
We covered BYD’s movement in this direction in December 2023, and then again in January 2024 when it started shipping its electric vehicles to export markets on Explorer No. 1. But, as with many things, BYD grows fast. A few months ago, we covered BYD launching its 6th car-carrying vessel. Now, BYD has just launched its 7th!
BYD Zhengzhou is the name of this 7th vessel. Like other vessels, it can carry up to about 7,000 cars at once. Naturally, Zhengzhou, in the Henan province, is the home of one of BYD’s largest production facilities. That is how BYD has been naming its vessels lately. The names of all of BYD’s ships are now:
- BYD Explorer No. 1
- BYD Hefei
- BYD Changzhou
- BYD Shenzhen
- BYD Xi’an
- BYD Changsha
- BYD Zhengzhou.
BYD has reportedly delivered more than 70,000 new energy vehicles around the world via its vessels now.
“The cargo ship was built by Guangzhou Shipyard International Company Limited and is a sister ship to the BYD Hefei.
It is not that surprising that BYD has launched so many car-carrying ships in just a year and a half. The company’s sales have been growing like grass in summer in Florida. Year over year, BYD sales were up 42.5% in June, and in the first six months of the year, they were up 31.5%. That’s after sales were up significantly in 2024, too. The company delivered 2.146 million vehicles in the first half of the year, and while most of those were in China, more and more are abroad. As I wrote two weeks ago, “BYD’s vehicle deliveries outside of China reached 90,049 units in June.”
