BYD expands EV shipping fleet as wars upend freight costs and key trade routes

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China’s BYDBYDBYD Auto is a Chinese carmaker that became the world’s leading EV manufacturer in 2023, competing with Tesla for market share and global attention.READ MORE is building cars faster than it can export, so it’s adding more ships.
The world’s largest electric vehicle maker will expand its fleet of car-carrying cargo ships to 18 from eight by 2029, according to shipping industry reports. Each new carrier will have the capacity to carry about 9,200 cars and will be built by China Merchants Industry.
Owning its fleet could cut BYD’s cost to ship each car abroad by as much as 40% compared with renting carriers, according to one industry estimate. BYD’s increasing export capacity could help it push further into global markets, intensifying competition for automakers including Tesla and traditional U.S. brands.
“Carmakers like BYD, which invested in the sector ahead of the surge, are reaping the rewards of that long-term strategy,” Andrea De Luca, a maritime analyst at Boston-based shipping data company Veson Nautical, told Rest of World. “By owning their ships, they can save money compared with chartering at today’s elevated rates, prioritize their most important markets, enter new ones more easily, and depend less on charter market swings.”
BYD did not respond to Rest of World’s request for comment.
Why BYD owns ships
In 2022, BYD announced a plan worth $687 million to build its own car carriers, to fix what founder Wang Chuanfu called a shortage of shipping capacity for exports. Between January 2024 and September 2025, the company put eight car carriers into service.
Earlier this year, BYD told investors that a shortage of shipping capacity had held back its exports. In September, the company sold 180,700 cars outside China, more than double a year ago and almost 40% of its monthly total sales.
Wars in the Red Sea and around the Strait of Hormuz have pushed up freight costs and forced ships onto longer routes around conflict zones. Renting a car carrier with capacity of about 6,500 cars now costs $95,000 a day, up from $50,000 in February, according to shipping data and analytics firm Clarksons Research. Chinese owners account for only about 10% of global car carrier capacity, including ships on order, so carmakers from the country hire ships from international shipping companies, the research arm of shipbroker Clarksons said.
With BYD aiming to sell more than 2.5 million cars overseas next year, up from a target of 1.9 to 2 million this year, owning a fleet cushions against higher shipping bills and gives more control over space and routes, analysts said.
2.5 million Number of cars BYD aims to sell overseas next year, up from a target of 1.9 to 2 million this year.
“The very strong growth in Chinese exports, fueling strong Asia-Europe fronthaul demand growth, is the biggest single factor behind the increase in charter rates,” Stephen Gordon, managing director of Clarksons Research, told Rest of World. “Additionally, conflict in the Middle East has caused regional disruption and inefficiencies, which have helped to further tighten markets after a two-year period of gradual normalization.”
Most car carriers on Asia-Europe routes are sailing around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the Red Sea, adding about 25% to the distance and as many as 14 days to each voyage, De Luca said. With shipping through the Strait of Hormuz disrupted, the spot rate for moving cars from China to the Middle East has jumped to $220 per cubic meter of cargo space from $65 in February, he said.
Chinese EVs and exports
In China, industrywide sales of EVs and plug-in hybrids fell 12% in the first eight months of the year, after the government cut tax breaks for buyers. BYD sold 33% fewer cars at home over the same period.
Many Chinese carmakers have kept their factories busy by selling surplus cars abroad as changes to tax and subsidy incentives have cooled demand at home, George Whitcombe, a senior EV analyst at London-based battery data provider Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, told Rest of World.
Exports of China-made EVs are now rising faster than their registrations overseas, pointing to a growing stock of unsold cars, he said.
“Control over its distribution network is a strategy BYD has long pursued,” Whitcombe said. “With other Chinese automakers left without their own fleet of ships and exposed to rising shipping costs, it potentially leaves them in a less competitive position to grow their overseas presence.”
Tesla, BYD’s main U.S. rival, has relied on other companies’ carriers to export from China. Its Shanghai plant shipped more cars abroad than it sold at home in the first eight months of the year. Carmakers that charter ships are more exposed to swings in the charter market than those that own them, De Luca said.
BYD’s giant carriers are mainly a marketing exercise, Felipe Munoz, founder of research platform Car Industry Analysis, told Rest of World. Owning ships has its drawbacks and advantages, he said.
“By displaying these massive carriers, it aims to project an image of power and speed to the rest of the world,” Munoz said. “It is more a political statement against the established carmakers by telling the world that BYD is moving fast and has a lot of resources to make the most advanced EVs.”
BYD’s fleet is about control, and extending into logistics is a natural step now that it exports millions of cars amid geopolitical volatility and cost swings, Lei Xing, founder of AutoXing, a Chinese auto industry consultancy, told Rest of World. BYD ships only EVs and plug-in hybrids, which need specially configured carriers, and most of its fleet runs on liquefied natural gas as ports tighten green-fuel rules, he said.
Rival Geely began running its first car carrier in 2025, on a long-term charter from London-based shipowner Zodiac Maritime. Chery set up a venture with Wuhu Shipyard in 2023 to build car carriers for its own fleet in eastern China.
“Geely, on the other hand, will be running its own ships eventually,” Lei Xing said. “You can bet on that.”

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