BYD TAKES EV WAR TO TESLA WITH FREE SMART-DRIVING TECH. RIVAL STOCKS DROP.

BYD shares briefly hit their highest-ever level on Tuesday. The Chinese electric-vehicle maker is looking to undercut rivals such as Tesla by adding more self-driving features to a wider range of its cars.

BYD on Monday introduced its smart driving system The God’s Eye, or Eye of God, which will be available in most of its models, including ones priced as low as $9,555. It will be included as standard on BYD models priced over 100,000 yuan ($13,689).

The God’s Eye is comparable to Ford Motor’s Blue Cruise, General Motors’ Super Cruise, or Tesla’s AutoPilot and Full Self-Driving features. All can do several driving tasks, but require driver supervision 100% of the time.

BYD will have three levels of The God’s Eye, depending on the cost of the vehicle. Lower-end models will use cameras, radars, and ultrasound sensors. Midrange will add a lidar or laser-based radar. Higher-end models will have multiple lidars in addition to the other sensors.

Along with sensors, onboard computers help cars drive. Tesla uses a high-end, artificial-intelligence-enabled computer to help its cars drive. It also uses only camera sensors, believing that’s enough. Tesla also believes its driver-assistance systems will drive better than humans this year.

Analysts at J.P. Morgan estimate that 40%-50% of BYD’s domestic vehicle sales this year will include autonomous-driving features, outpacing rivals. That can drive market-share gains.

“We believe BYD will continue to gain market share thanks to a competitive model lineup and drive industry AD [autonomous driving] penetration given its extensive distribution channel and product portfolio across price points,” wrote J.P. Morgan analyst Tony Lee and colleagues in a research note.

BYD is the leading EV brand in China and sold 3.7 million passenger cars last year in the country, up 37% from a year earlier. Global sales topped 4.2 million, up 41%.

In comparison, Tesla’s Chinese sales rose 9% to around 660,000 cars. Tesla is still waiting for final approval in China for its own version of AI-powered driving.

J.P. Morgan analysts have an Overweight rating and a price target of 475.00 Hong Kong dollars ($60.96) on BYD’s Hong Kong-listed shares.

Citi analyst Jeff Chung pointed out that the additional lidar sensors were positive for Hesai. Its U.S.-listed ADRs closed up 5.3% on Tuesday, closing at $18 apiece.

BYD’s shares rose more than 4% on Tuesday morning to a record intraday high of HK$345 before falling back and closing at HK$327.80, down 0.7% on the day. The Hong Kong-listed stock is up 15% in the past five trading sessions.

Better features for BYD cars mean tougher competition for competitors. U.S.-listed American depositary receipts of XPeng, NIO, and Li Auto fell 6.9%, 6.7%, and 4.9%, respectively, on Tuesday. The S&P 500 finished flat and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3%.

BYD also said its “Xuanji” smartcar system is fully integrated with technology from Chinese AI firm DeepSeek, which shocked the market last month when it claimed to train a model competitive with Western rivals at a fraction of the cost.

Write to Adam Clark at [email protected] and Al Root at [email protected]

2025-02-11T12:05:58Z