BYD finds sales partner for the Netherlands
BYD is tackling the next country after Norway in the sale of its electric cars in Europe: In the Netherlands, the Chinese manufacturer has selected the car dealer group Louwman as its national sales partner. The company will offer BYD customers in the Netherlands online and offline sales as well as after-sales services.
Louwman will offer a digital platform for online ordering, customer service as well as advice, according to a BYD press release. Offline sales and after-sales services for BYD drivers will also be provided through the company’s dealer network.
A first BYD showroom, where interested parties can also examine vehicles from the Chinese manufacturer, is to open in Amsterdam in September, followed by further locations. The announcement does not say which models BYD will offer in the Netherlands – in Norway it is the Tang EV electric SUV.
According to BYD, Louwman is one of the largest automotive companies in Europe with branches in 70 locations. Thanks to Louwman’s market awareness and resources, the Chinese company expects the cooperation to quickly make BYD known and increase sales of the new-energy vehicles in the Netherlands. “We are proud to start our BYD passenger vehicles journey in the Netherlands with such an experienced and respected partner as Louwman,” said Michael Shu, General Manager and Managing Director, BYD Europe and International Cooperation Division. “Like BYD, Louwman is a business that thrives on being innovative.”
For Louwman, it is not the first partnership with a Chinese OEM: the trade group was actually supposed to take over sales in the Netherlands for Byton, and Louwman was among the first European sales partners here. As is well known, however, Byton did not make the leap into large-scale production – and Louwman consequently did not deliver an M-Byte in the Netherlands.
With this partnership, BYD is pushing ahead with its expansion in Europe. At the end of June, the Chinese manufacturer Xpeng had suspended its pre-orders for the P5 electric sedan, which were open in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands, until further notice – with reference to global supply chain problems.
In Norway, BYD had handed over the first 100 units of its all-electric SUV model Tang to customers last year, with more to follow. The vehicle has the Blade battery developed and produced by BYD itself – an LFP battery with very large cells that are installed directly in the battery pack without a module.
As reported, BYD now only produces electric cars and plug-in hybrids. The last pure combustion engine already rolled off the production line in February. According to the latest press release, the company has already sold more than two million New Energy vehicles.
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