BYD’s Cheap EV Aims to Conquer Europe

Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.

Forget the Volkswagen Beetle and the Fiat 500, Chinese automaker BYD is betting its latest EV will be the new car of choice for Europe’s masses. It hammered the point home last month with an audacious drone display at Rome’s Olympic Stadium, a move that shows how confident the company is that it can sell electric vehicles even where the most patriotic petrol heads reside. After a slow start, BYD is gaining sales momentum with sleek showrooms, bold pricing, and a dealer push that’s begun to rattle entrenched rivals. European manufacturers have been on the backfoot when it comes to the electric transition for too long and will need to respond with mass-market offerings before its too late. After all, the EU’s target for all new cars to be emissions free is only a decade away.