BYD bids goodbye to Hedin in Sweden
According to Hedin, both parties have jointly agreed to “transition the distribution of BYD vehicles and spare parts in the Swedish market to BYD Sweden AB.” This means that BYD is now also breaking away from the importer in Hedin’s home market of Sweden. In Germany, the separation already took place in August 2024.
The reason given is the “next phase of development in the Swedish market,” for which BYD wants to take direct responsibility. To this end, the subsidiary Hedin Electric Mobility AB, which was previously responsible for sales in Sweden, will end its involvement with BYD with immediate effect. However, a transitional period of up to three months has been agreed, during which Hedin will continue to support BYD as required. Beyond that, however, Hedin Automotive Sweden will only serve the Chinese company as an authorised dealer.
Anders Hedin, CEO and founder of the Hedin Mobility Group, also commented on the restructuring of BYD’s sales business in the press release: “As a long-term partner to BYD, we have worked together to successfully introduce the brand to Swedish customers and establish a strong foundation for future growth. We fully support BYD in taking this next step to execute its strategy in Europe, and we are proud to continue as a retail partner in both Sweden and Germany to contribute to further strengthening the brand’s position in these important markets.”
In Germany, BYD demoted Hedin from importer to dealer almost a year ago and took sales into its own hands. To this end, the Chinese car manufacturer founded a company called BYD Automotive GmbH in Germany and took over Hedin Electric Mobility, the Hedin subsidiary previously responsible for imports. The reorganisation was therefore more extensive in Germany than in Sweden, which is probably related to the size of the markets.
Before the move, there had been increasing signs in Germany that BYD was dissatisfied with its importer and was therefore seeking direct access to dealers in the important German electric car market. BYD then bought Hedin’s sales activities without further ado and founded its own sales company for this purpose. As is now the case in Sweden, the agreement also included the spare parts business.
BYD struggled with its sales figures in Europe to date: In May 2024, the then-head of Europe, Michael Shu, was ousted, and Stella Li took over responsibility. The manager is unofficially seen as the number two at BYD behind founder and president Wang Chuanfu. Even then, the poor registration figures, particularly in Germany, were cited as the reason for the reorganisation. It was only in the last two or three months that BYD has also been able to make headway in Europe, overtaking Tesla in terms of registration figures on the continent in April.
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