Xpeng Seeks New Tech-Licensing Partners Beyond Volkswagen as Core Auto Business Loses Money

BYD's overseas business has overtaken its home market, generating roughly 53% of total revenue in the first half of 2026 even as the company's overall results declined. Revenue fell 7.1% year over year to RMB 344.8 billion, and net profit attributable to shareholders dropped 20.5% to RMB 12.3 billion, as brutal price competition squeezed China's EV market. Overseas revenue reached RMB 181.3 billion in the first half, up about 34% year over year, and first-half margin improved to 18.85% from 18.01%, driven largely by the overseas vehicle business, which Reuters reported carried a margin of 22%. The monthly sales data sharpened the trend: in August, BYD sold 440,293 new-energy vehicles globally, up 17.8% from a year earlier, with overseas sales jumping 134.6% to 188,746 vehicles while domestic sales fell 14.3%. The shift marks a change in the investment story for the world's largest new-energy vehicle maker, which has largely been a China play over its history.

TD Cowen told clients on Tuesday that the recent selloff in auto stocks over fears of Chinese automakers entering the US market is "overdone," as President Xi Jinping arrives in Washington on Wednesday for three days of talks with President Trump. Senior analyst Itay Michaeli wrote that a shift in US import policy at the summit is "very unlikely," though he urged investors to prepare for that eventuality anyway, noting that most industry contacts share that view. A coalition led by the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, joined by the American Automotive Policy Council, dealer group NADA, and supplier association MEMA, sent a letter to Trump urging the administration to "keep the door firmly shut to Chinese automakers seeking to sell, import, or manufacture vehicles inside the US," crediting Trump's 100% tariffs on Chinese vehicles and a Commerce Department rule barring Chinese connected-car software with shielding the US from the surge seen in Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia, Mexico, and South America. TD Cowen laid out guardrails under which Chinese automakers could be forced in through minority-owned joint ventures with domestic players and probably barred from building full-size trucks, and Michaeli argued such structures "might even prove EPS accretive given sizable D3 EV losses," with Stellantis arguably having the most to gain given its lower North America EBIT starting point. The firm sees EV suppliers and charging networks like ChargePoint and EVgo as beneficiaries of faster US EV adoption, and parts makers with existing ties to Chinese OEMs, including BorgWarner and Aptiv, as "better positioned" than most, while the math is mixed for EV pure-plays Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid. The catch, per Michaeli, is that Big Three stock multiples could still suffer on the long-term risk that any initial restrictions eventually get lifted.