9:49 am, July 25, 2025
China’s biggest car maker, BYD, has hit out at the UK’s Electric Car Grant, branding it ‘stupid’ and a ‘bit of a joke’.
Last week, the government announced £650 million in funding for the new scheme, as part of a wider £4.5billion package to support the transition to zero emission transport.
And while final details of the scheme have yet to be announced, it appears that Chinese EV makers might be left in the cold after transport minister Lillian Greenwood suggested they wouldn’t be eligible for grant funding.
‘The grant is restricted to those manufacturers that reach minimum environmental standards,’ she said, on the BBC Today programme. ‘And, frankly, if you generate a lot of the electricity that powers your factory through coal power stations, then you are not going to be able to access this grant.
Manufacturers will discover if they’ve met the required thresholds to qualify early next month.
BYD’s CEO Wang Chuanfu referred to the subsidies as ‘stupid’ and a ‘bit of a joke’, telling the Financial Times: ‘They are too small and too late. By the time they start to take effect, the market will already be saturated with Chinese EVs.’
BYD’s vice-president Stella Li, also predicts that the Chinese brand’s sales wouldn’t be affected by the policy, telling the FT that the world’s biggest EV producer is undeterred and will create 5,000 more jobs by next year as part of its rapid European expansion.
Chinese brands including MG, Leapmotor and GWM are already offering their own grants instead, announced this week and ahead of the scheme being introduced.
Alfredo Altavilla, a special advisor for BYD’s European operations, also said that there’s no way to prevent the success of Chinese-made cars in the long run. ‘The question is, is there any European government who can afford to fight against Chinese-made cars forever? No. So what’s the purpose of doing all this?,’ he told thisismoneyco.uk.
Despite its bullish attitude, BYD announced earlier this week that it is delaying operating its new Hungarian plant at full capacity, which originally formed part of its vast European expansion plans.
