BYD's Miracle

BYD has been around for a while with reasonable success but its sales have recently surged. Most of its deliveries are in China but is aiming for half its sales to come from outside of China by 2030. Considering it sold 4 million cars in China in 2024 and may increase this figure by 2030, that is a challenging target. It's in a hurry.

I wrote about recent sales for 2023-24 and Q1 2025 which can be seen by clicking on the dates. I was impressed about the progress BYD was making. 

A leaked e-mail in late 2024 showed BYD asked suppliers for a 10% reduction in prices which sounded arbitrary to say the least. Once prices are negotiated, they should be honoured until the next round of negotiations. BYD responded at the time by saying the price cut wasn't mandatory. Still, it set off an alarm bell for me.

Now comes confirmation of something far darker. BYD decided to build its first plant outside of China in Brazil. However, work was stopped there late last year. Now The Public Labour Prosecutor's Office in the state of Bahia says 220 Chinese workers were rescued and is suing BYD and two of its contractors. Why? They said the standard of accommodation, work hours and some issues around workers rights were unacceptable. 

One would like to think this was an exception but we don't know. I mentioned earlier that the company seems in a hurry. That always concerns me as a hasty desire for success should never be at the expense of human rights. I know that sounds idealistic in this world where abuses in this regard are not uncommon. But having a major work construction closed down is serious and hopefully lessons are being learned. 

Whoever is responsible for this situation will be held accountable and I don't know who knew what. But either way BYD is ultimately responsible as they must make sure nothing like this happens in any of their operations. Would I buy a BYD? Not for now at least. They need to make sure they are building dreams responsibly.

Photo source: BYD NZ.

Buick China Sales : 2010-2024

Buick has a long history in China and has been a popular brand. When GM entered bankruptcy protection in 2009, decisions had to be made regarding restructuring. Buick was saved due to its strong position in China. We will see how that decision was vindicated by considering sales of the marque in China from 2010 to 2024. 

The figures include only cars made in China but I assume that is the vast majority if not all anyway. Import duty makes that a necessity. Sources can vary as to the numbers involved but in larger volumes of data it's not much of an issue. The chart figures need three zeros added so for example 900 equals 900,000.

2010-14: The chart to the right shows Buick sales went up from just over 500,000 to over 900,000. That was an increase from about 4% market share to just over 4.5%. 

In comparison, for the USA Buick increased from 155,000 to 225,000 with around 1.4% share. That's quite a difference with China well ahead. 

2015-19: Sales went from just over a million to above 1.3 million and then under 900,000. That had Buick reaching 5% market penetration, then falling to around 4.1%. In the US, sales were just over 200,000 per annum and 1.2% share. So the brand was still far more popular in China but the gap was closing. 

2020-24: From just over 900,000 units it plunged to barely over 300,000 by 2024. Its slice of the pie went from about 4.5% to 1.2%. Back home sales were about 170,000 and 1.1% market share. China was still the more important numerically but its share was now similar to the US. I wonder which was now the more profitable.

So what happened? Part of the reason was the Excelle model (photo at top). In 2014 it contributed over 500,000 units to the total (or 60%). By 2020, it was 300,000 (33%) but then the model was phased out and nothing fully took its place, the Envision and GL8 doing their best. 

In 2024 all models fell, some substantially. I assume that was due to giving up on chasing market share at the expense of profit. The issue was also that the market was changing and Buick wasn't keeping up. Electric cars are growing strongly in China and local brands are doing a good job of catering to that shift. 

Buick has introduced an electric brand (Electra, photo below) to cater to the swing toward new energy vehicles as they are referred to in China. How the Buick brand will go in future I'm unsure but then Electra may be the future for Buick in China. 

Japan Car Sales : 2025 (Jan-Apr)

Registrations were up 13% in April and 13% YTD as well. Import brands were +12% and +6% respectively. 

Import brands made up 5.6% of total registrations. In an open market such as this, it defies what happens anywhere else. 

Toyota and Daihatsu suffered in 2024 due to scandal but both are returning to normal volumes again. 

It was Japanese competition that benefitted and they are now the ones slipping back. Mazda is an exception with market share up although it is a small player here.

Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi have lost share so far but VW and Porsche are currently well up. Land Rover and Tesla are both up too, the latter is a reasonably accurate estimate. 

The top selling models were:

Honda N-Box - 73,712

Toyota Yaris / Y Cross - 63,243

Suzuki Spacia - 60,399

Toyota Corolla - 57,386

Daihatsu Tanto - 45,316

Toyota Sienta - 41,082

Honda Freed - 35,355

Toyota Alphard - 35,511

Daihatsu Move - 32,686

Toyota Prius - 32,426

Nissan Note - 30,881

Suzuki Hustler - 31,721

Toyota Aqua - 30,816

For 2024 articles, simply click on the links below:

By brand. 

Top 50 Models.

Data source: JAMA, JAIDA.

The NSU Ro80

Sometimes a good idea ends up being anything but. The NSU Ro80 is a classic case of that as we will see. The focus here is car manufacturing, not bikes NSU also made. 

The company started making cars in 1905 but it didn't work out and they ended up assembling Fiat models instead, the brand name Neckar being used from 1957. That same year, the company started making its own cars again under the NSU brand name, the first car being the Prinz. 

The company started using the Wankel engine and in 1967, it made it into the Ro80. This was an advanced car in many ways and was given design awards as a result. Such acclaim didn't result in success. 

Production went from 1967 to 1977 but the the extreme dates were partial years so ten years was the length of time it was made. 37,400 were made or 3,700 per annum. From 1968 to 1970 the production numbers were around the 7,000 mark annually but fell away sharply after that. 

The main issues were reliability and fuel consumption. The engine was also expensive to make so along with warranty costs, it was hurting the company badly. Volkswagen took NSU over in 1969 and NSU was gradually wound down and absorbed into Audi. 

Audi seemed to take on the design of the Ro80 and allowed it to influence their products. Not a bad thing as the style of the Ro80 was a strong point, as was the driving experience. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough out outweigh the negatives.