[RIYADH] Chinese automaker BYD plans to ramp up its expansion efforts in Saudi Arabia, building on momentum from Tesla’s launch in the country and capitalising on the kingdom’s push to become a new hub for electric cars.
BYD, which launched in Saudi Arabia last year and currently runs three showrooms there, aims to open another seven locations by the second half of 2026, according to Jerome Saigot, managing director for Saudi Arabia.
The firm expects to sell more than 5,000 vehicles this year in the kingdom, a drop in the bucket for BYD’s overall sales but sizable in a market where gas-guzzling cars dominate the roads and EV adoption has been slow going.
“Saudi is a complex market. You need to go fast. You need to think big,” Saigot said in an interview with Bloomberg. “We are not here to stay at five or ten thousand cars a year.”
Saudi Arabia is investing heavily in the EV industry through its Public Investment Fund (PIF) as part of a broader strategy to cut emissions, curb auto imports and diversify the local economy. The PIF has backed Lucid Motors as the automaker works on building Saudi’s first auto manufacturing plant. It has also created its own EV brand known as Ceer and started a JV to build out EV charging stations.
Still, electric cars account for just over 1 per cent of total car sales in the kingdom, with high costs, sparse charging infrastructure and extreme temperatures factors challenging EV adoption, according to PwC.
Tesla opened its first showroom in Riyadh in April, joining automakers including BYD and Geely in trying to gain a foothold in the market. BYD’s Saigot sees the move as beneficial, with Tesla helping to raise EV awareness.
“The more Tesla communicates on marketing, the better it is for us,” said Saigot, who started at BYD in April after serving in previous roles at Nissan Motor and Great Wall Motor.
BYD has been gaining ground on Tesla in recent months. The Chinese automaker sold more fully electric cars in Europe than Elon Musk’s firm for the first time ever in April. Some analysts now predict BYD will pull ahead of Tesla globally for the full year. BLOOMBERG
