BYD’s fourth car carrier ship is the largest to date

BYD has launched the world's largest cargo ship for vehicles. The 219-metre-long BYD Shenzhen can hold up to 9,200 cars and is BYD's fourth car carrier ship to date. The company plans to have a total of eight cargo ships by early 2026 to drive its global expansion. (UPDATE BELOW)

The BYD Shenzhen is currently the world’s largest roll-on-roll-off (RoRo) ship. At 219 metres long, 37.7 metres wide and with a draft of nine metres, the Shenzhen is also the largest in BYD’s fleet of four ships. The first ship, the BYD Explorer No.1, is slightly shorter at 199.9 metres, but slightly wider – this ship had already docked in Germany in spring 2024.

With a capacity of up to 9,200 vehicles, the Shenzhen, named after BYD’s home city, is set to surpass the Höegh Aurora, the largest car transporter by capacity to date, by around 100 vehicles. BYD also claims that it is the “world’s most environmentally friendly car carrier,” primarily thanks to its dual-fuel technology, which allows it to run on marine diesel and LNG.

There will also be BYD’s own batteries on board, but few details have been published. There is speculation that the stationary storage batteries will power the ship when docking or in low-emission zones to reduce fuel consumption and emissions.

BYD is known for wanting to control all factors along the supply chain. The company not only builds cars – it also makes the batteries. To supply the numerous battery factories in China with raw materials, BYD also operates a lithium mine. With its own fleet of ships, BYD wants to control the export of its vehicles and not be held back by a lack of freight capacity. However, operating eight large transport ships is considered risky as BYD’s export business has not yet developed as expected. Around ten per cent of the 4.25 million new BYDs sold last year were sold outside China.

Update 06 May 2025

A few months after its launch, BYD has now put its fourth and largest car transport ship into service. The BYD Shenzhen started its first journey from China to Brazil at the end of April with more than 7,000 New Energy Vehicles on board. This meant that the maximum capacity of up to 9,200 vehicles was not fully utilised on the maiden voyage.

The BYD Shenzhen will probably soon be followed by two more car transporters for BYD. As the CN EV Post writes, the car manufacturer already has the BYD Changsha and BYD Xi’an in the pipeline. The BYD Changsha will also be able to transport up to 9,200 vehicles and is about to be launched. The sixth transport ship, the BYD Xi’an, was already launched in April, but has not yet been officially put into service.

carnewschina.com, cnevpost.com (update)