BYD to start building Dolphin Surf in Europe this year
BYD has announced that Dolphin Surf will be the first car produced at its new factory in Hungary.
The Chinese automotive giant plans to open its first European factory near Szeged in the coming months and says it is on track to start production before the end of 2025.
Announcing the news at the IAA Mobility 2025 show in Munich, BYD’s executive vice president Stella Li said the compact city car would lead the charge of building cars for Europe in Europe.
She said: “Europe is a tremendously important market for us, so it’s natural to confirm here, at the region’s largest auto show of 2025, that our Dolphin Surf will be the first car that we manufacture in Hungary. We’ve been consistent with our commitment to this project and we’re really excited to start selling cars produced in Europe.”
She also confirmed that BYD was on track to bring its Flash Charging system to Europe. Ms Li said that installation of the first chargers, which can operate at up to 1,000kW and add a mile of range per second, was due to begin earlier than anticipated. She said that between 200 and 300 charging stations would be installed by quarter two of 2026 and that their roll-out would be supported by the arrival of the Denza brand in Europe.
Denza is the more premium arm of the BYD family, sitting between BYD and the luxury-focused Yangwang. At Munich the new brand showed off the Z9GT shooting brake and D9 MPV, which will spearhead its launch in selected markets from next year.
The Z9GT uses a tri-motor setup to offer up to 952bhp, putting it in competition with the Porsche Taycan, Audi RS e-tron GT and incoming Mercedes-AMG supersaloon based on the GT XX.
The D9, meanwhile, is a premium seven-seat people carrier expected to rival the Lexus LM and inbound Mercedes VLE, Volvo EM90 and LEVC L380. Its 103kWh battery is reportedly capable of up to 372 miles of range.
BYD also used the Munich show to debut its new Seal 6 Touring DM-i. The VW ID.7 Tourer-sized estate uses BYD’s “Super Hybrid” plug-in hybrid technology to offer more than 800 miles of combined range. It will arrive in the UK in January, joining the Seal U DM-i as the EV specialist’s second PHEV.
