BYD has continued its rapid rise in the UK car market, selling more passenger cars in the first quarter of 2025 than it did during the whole of 2024.
The Chinese brand registered 9,271 vehicles between January and March – exceeding the 8,787 total recorded across the entirety of last year.
The result marked BYD’s most successful UK quarter since launching passenger cars in March 2023, and represents a year-on-year growth of 625% for the same period.
Its market share climbed significantly as a result, rising from 0.45% in 2024 to 1.6% in Q1 2025.
In March alone, BYD’s share reached 1.8%, as the brand celebrates two years in the UK passenger car sector.
Key to the surge in popularity were two models: the SEAL U DM-i and the SEAL.
The plug-in hybrid SEAL U DM-i topped the PHEV segment for March, while the all-electric SEAL was the seventh most popular EV in the same month.
Combined, these two models accounted for more than 6,400 of BYD’s Q1 registrations.
Steve Beattie, sales and marketing director at BYD UK, said: “I am incredibly proud of our latest achievement in the UK; thanks to the tireless work of our team and retailer partners we have smashed yet another sales record.
“At BYD our mission is to bring high-tech and high-value cars to our customers, and it’s great to see this resonating with UK buyers.
“With the addition of SEALION 7, we are confident that more people will continue to choose BYD.”
Since introducing electric buses to UK roads in 2014, BYD now has more than 2,500 units in operation across major cities.
In addition, it has delivered 1.8GWh of battery energy storage to the UK’s national grid since 2016.
