On 28 July, BYD confirmed to media that its humanoid robot product will officially debut and “go on duty” in August, signalling a move from a pure carmaker toward an ecosystem technology group. The same day, the 2026 Fortune Global 500 listed 35 vehicle and parts firms; BYD replaced Tesla as the electric-vehicle sales champion and became the only Chinese carmaker inside the top 100.
Its sales momentum carries the honour. June volume reached 403,500 vehicles, the only domestic carmaker above 400,000 that month. July rose further to 419,200, up 21.75 per cent year on year. Against a domestic narrow passenger-vehicle market that fell 23.2 per cent in June to 1.602 million units, BYD’s half-year champion title stands out.
Three pillars behind the C-suite spot
First, overseas growth. June exports hit 174,900 units, up 95 per cent year on year and 43.4 per cent of sales; overseas gross margin ran 6 to 11 percentage points above domestic. First-half overseas volume reached 789,400 units, up 56 per cent. In the second quarter BYD delivered 557,000 battery-electric vehicles globally, ahead of Tesla’s 480,000. In Australia it delivered 18,800 in June, just 243 behind long-dominant Toyota.
Second, a multi-brand matrix. In June, Dynasty and Ocean posted 340,863 units, Fangchengbao 35,607, Denza 20,352 and Yangwang 470. July’s gain came from both lines: 233,100 battery-electric and 178,000 plug-in hybrid.
Third, scale effects. By the first half BYD had sold 1,808,511 NEVs, with cumulative sales past 16.9 million. Fortune puts its sales profit margin at 4.1 per cent versus a 1.7 per cent global average, the highest among Chinese vehicle makers. Q1 revenue was 150.23 billion yuan, net profit 4.09 billion, with gross margin 18.81 per cent, up 1.37 points.
Full-stack R&D and “smart-driving equality”
BYD’s core drive is full-stack self-development, the only NEV maker independently mastering batteries, motors, electronic control and automotive-grade IGBT. The 2020 blade battery reset the safety and cost baseline; the second-generation blade battery, launched in March 2026, lifted energy density 5 per cent, passed three extreme tests, and pushed pure-electric range past 1,000 kilometres.
The May 2026 mass production of the Xuanji A3 chip ended dependence on outside suppliers. China’s first 4-nanometre smart-driving chip supports L3 and L4; three chips per vehicle deliver over 2,100 TOPS, with about 20 per cent lower power per unit of compute. BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu called it as hard to make as a 2-nanometre consumer chip. By defining chip and algorithm itself, BYD pushed “smart-driving equality” by cutting cost enough to bring city NOA to models below 100,000 yuan.
A new board, a new curve
2026 is widely seen as the humanoid “mass-production year one”. Goldman Sachs projects global humanoid shipments of 51,000 in 2026 and 76,000 in 2027, several times the 15,000 to 20,000 of 2025. BYD’s case is not a bandwagon move; its three first-mover edges are reusable core tech, a full in-house manufacturing system, and rich internal deployment scenes across dozens of factories and thousands of dealerships.
Yet the picture is not flawless. Q1 net profit fell 55.38 per cent year on year, per-car profit sliding from 8,500 to 4,800 yuan. Inventory reached 160.41 billion yuan, up over 20 billion. R&D hit 11.34 billion, 2.8 times net profit. Overseas, the EU anti-subsidy probe and US legislation add risk, and receivables rose to 44.22 billion. The debt ratio, while improved, was still 70.94 per cent.
BYD stands at a crossroads of glory and challenge. It proved a Chinese firm can hold the global stage, and its humanoid bet may define its next decade. Whether it becomes a true technology definer, not just a scale leader, is the question the market will keep asking.
Editor’s note: This is an adapted translation of the original OFweek report. It has been trimmed and restructured for readability for an international business audience.