BYD's quarterly sales drop for the first time in five years

BYD's quarterly car sales for the third quarter of this year (July to September) fell 2.1% compared to Q3 2024, according to a new Reuters report based on a filing by the Chinese company.

While the difference isn't that big, this is the first time BYD has seen a quarterly drop in sales since the second quarter of 2020, when there was a lot of disruption across the world related to the Covid pandemic.

BYD sold 1.106 million cars in Q3 2025. If we only look at the month of September, the drop in sales is more significant, with 5.88% less cars sold than in September of last year. This represents the first monthly sales fall since February 2024.

Responding to this, BYD has cut its production output by a further 8.46% last month, continuing the trend of underutilization of its production capacity. BYD has cut its sales target for this full year by 16% to 4.6 million vehicles.

Its recent European expansion should help it mitigate slowing sales elsewhere, at least in theory. With an EV factory opening in Hungary by the end of the year, it will be better positioned on the EU market in terms of pricing, since it will get around the extra-high tariffs imposed by the bloc on Chinese-made EVs.