BYD appoints Marc Samuel as fleet sales manager

Former Honda fleet sales operations manager and ex-Pendragon B2B director Marc Samuel has joined Chinese car brand BYD, as UK fleet sales manager - passenger car.

Samuel has most recently held the post as UK fleet sales manager at Nio, forming part of the company's UK launch team.

Nio has not started selling cars in the UK yet, due to delays in its plans to set up a network of battery swap stations. BYD's market introduction is well underway, however.

The brand has three models already on sale and plans to launch more cars this year. In 2023, it registered 1,158 new cars with more than 650 going into the true fleet channel.

BYD has an aspiration to capture 6% of the UK electric vehicle market over the next few years. Its sales strategy is to be present in every key channel, but over-exposed to none. This means no part of the market, whether fleet, rental, Motability or retail, will exceed the 6% share threshold as the company begins to build its volumes.

Its most popular model, currently, is the Atto 3. The Atto 3 was the first BYD to launch in the UK. It was quickly followed by the Dolphin, a small hatchback. At the end of 2023, BYD introduced the Seal into the compact executive market. All BYD models are fully electric.