The Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD $1211 (+4,22%) has hired a long-standing Hyundai manager for a key position in Germany: Kai Schröder is to be responsible for the strategic expansion of the dealer and service network for BYD in Germany, which is crucial for growth in the German market.
Schröder is due to start his new job at BYD in the course of the year - and will be responsible for the expansion of BYD's dealer and service network throughout Germany.
This is a key position in the company, as BYD has extremely ambitious growth targets in Germany and Europe. For example, the company has set a sales target of 50,000 cars for Germany this year. But that is not feasible: After the first four months of the year, BYD has only managed to sell 2,793 cars. The month of April shows just how much catching up BYD has to do in Germany: BYD increased its German sales by an incredible 756 percent to 1,567 units compared to the same period last year.
So far, there has been an absolute lack of sales: Last August, there was a big blow-up with the former sales partner Hedin and BYD took German sales into its own hands. Since then, however, the number of points of sale has only grown on a homeopathic scale from 27 to 29 locations. Accordingly, there are still large gaps in the dealer network: The map on the BYD website still does not show any BYD locations in major cities such as Munich, Nuremberg, Hanover or Bremen.
BYD now wants to change this with the help of Kai Schröder: He can look back on over 30 years of experience in the industry and, with his many years of expertise in setting up and developing efficient retail and service networks, should be of great value to BYD.
Maria Grazia Davino, SVP - Regional Managing Director BYD Europe, says: "We are delighted to have Kai Schröder on board. With his experience, strategic mindset and excellent industry connections, he is the ideal person to strengthen and further expand our network and provide the best possible support to our customers across Germany."
Maria Grazia Davino herself is one of BYD's top new additions in recent months: she was most recently the UK head of Stellantis. BYD also recently appointed former MG manager Patrick Schulz as Director Sales for Germany.
In line with the sales offensive in Europe, BYD has also launched a model offensive: just last week, the Dolphin Surf was presented, a compact electric car that is available from 19,990 euros to start with. And BYD only started selling the Atto 2 compact SUV in Europe in March.