Ex-Minister Szijjarto Joins BYD as Overseas Sales Hit a New High and Tesla Rivalry Intensifies
Published on 07/19/2026 at 19:11 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
BYD has hired Peter Szijjarto, Hungary’s former foreign and trade minister, to lead external relations and new business development in Europe. He starts on July 15, tasked with strengthening the Chinese electric-vehicle maker’s political and commercial networks on the continent. The appointment comes at a moment when BYD is racing to secure a second European production site — a search that has already involved talks with Stellantis about acquiring underused factory capacity — and just days after the company set a fresh monthly record for overseas sales.
Exports reached 175,349 units in June, a year-on-year jump of nearly 95 percent and the highest monthly total ever. Those overseas deliveries helped propel BYD’s second-quarter battery-electric-vehicle (BEV) tally to 557,090, comfortably ahead of Tesla’s 480,126. For the first half of the year as a whole, however, the gap has narrowed dramatically: BYD sold 867,479 BEVs versus Tesla’s 838,149, a difference of just 29,330 units compared with the hundreds of thousands that separated the two last year. The rapid catch-up reflects both Tesla’s returning momentum — its own Q2 figures were up 25 percent year-on-year — and the fact that BYD’s growth engine is now largely running outside China, where 43 percent of quarterly sales came from overseas markets. At home, a lingering price war continues to squeeze margins across the Chinese EV industry.
The stock, meanwhile, is showing signs of recovery from recent lows. BYD shares closed at €9.90 on Friday, down 1.75 percent for the session but up 9.39 percent over the past month. They have climbed more than 23 percent from the June trough of €8.03, although the longer-term picture remains weak: the equity is still down 27.58 percent from a year ago and 7.52 percent year-to-date, leaving it roughly one-third below the 52-week high of €14.80 struck in July 2025. Technical indicators point to a muddled outlook — the closing price sits 3 percent above the 50-day moving average of €9.62 but almost 7 percent below the 200-day average of €10.64, while the relative-strength index of 58.8 signals neutral ground and an annualized volatility of close to 41 percent reflects an unsettled trading environment.
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On the product side, BYD is rolling out technology designed to shorten the distance to full electrification. Its premium Denza brand began taking pre-orders on July 13 for the Z electric supercar, the headline feature of which is BYD’s “Flash Charging” system capable of 1,500 kilowatts. On compatible hardware, that allows a battery to climb from 10 to 70 percent in five minutes and from 10 to 97 percent in roughly nine minutes. BYD plans to roll out the same technology across its entire pure-EV lineup by the end of 2026. A few days later, on July 17, it teased the new Tang SUV of the 8-series, which is expected to offer a range of more than 800 kilometres and launch in the second half of the year.
Expansion in Europe, however, has not been without friction. The company’s $1-billion-plus factory project in the Turkish province of Manisa has been put on ice since June, prompting Ankara to warn it will claw back investment incentives if BYD officially cancels the plan. Hungary remains the clear priority: production at the Szeged plant, where Szijjarto will focus his efforts, is still slated to start in the fourth quarter of 2026. The former minister’s deep knowledge of Hungarian and EU policy circles is likely to prove valuable as Brussels prepares rules that would favour locally produced vehicles. On the supply-chain front, BYD on July 13 signed a multiyear materials partnership with Germany’s Covestro that goes beyond a conventional supplier relationship, aiming to jointly develop new materials for cars, batteries and energy storage systems.
With the Tesla earnings report due out after the U.S. close on July 22, the direct comparison between the two EV giants will soon be back in the spotlight. For BYD, the next few weeks also promise clarity on the European plant question, where an announcement on a second site — potentially via a deal with Stellantis — could come on short notice. Whether the political firepower Szijjarto brings can translate into tangible progress on the ground in Szeged and beyond will be the key subplot for investors watching the company’s global push.
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