BYD’s Euros sponsorship boosts awareness of Chinese brands

BYD’s decision to invest heavily in sponsorship of the UEFA Euro Championships 2024 has had a dramatic impact on consumer awareness which is also creating a ripple effect to other Chinese brands.

General awareness of BYD, which entered the UK market just over a year ago, has risen 13 points compared to autumn 2023, to 17% of consumers, according to research by Auto Trader. While that is dwarfed by legacy brands, such as BMW’s 87% awareness, it far outweighs the amount of stock from Chinese brands that is listed on the digital automotive platform.

Speaking on the Q2 broadcast of the Fleet News Market Insight with Auto Trader, director of automotive finance Rachael Jones said: “BYD and Ora account for about 3% of all new EV stock listed on our site.

“But what's interesting is, relative to that share of stock (3%), they're actually generating 8% of engagement with adverts. So, they are generating a lot of interest amongst consumers, with most of that is being driven by BYD.”

During the Euros, BYD enjoyed a surge in interest. Auto Trader receives two million new car visitors to its platform every month and during the opening weekend of the championships, BYD saw a 69% increase in engagements with stock listings versus the previous week.

It has since slightly softened, but remains up by around 41% versus pre-tournament, according to Jones.

“Even now, if you look at a specific model, the BYD Seal (pictured above) used to be the eighth most viewed new electric vehicle, and today it's the third most viewed,” she said.

“Not every brand is going to have access to big budgets, but that is definitely going to help them grow awareness and consumer interest a lot faster.”

The challenge that all new market entrants face is converting interest into sales.

“People are looking at the adverts, looking at the models, reading about them, but they're not converting into leads as strongly as kind of more traditional brands that we all know,” Jones explained.

“That will improve as people become more familiar with the BYDs and the Oras of the world.”