BYD puts U.S. passenger-car plans on hold amid geopolitical uncertainty - report

BYD (BYDDF) executive VP Stella Li said geopolitics is the biggest challenge to the Chinese automaker’s global expansion, citing a lack of certainty and visibility in overseas markets, Reuters reported.

“The number one challenge to expansion for BYD is geopolitics,” Li said at the Milken Institute Asia Summit in Singapore on Thursday.

“When we do business, we want to do something and have certainty and visibility then we can control and then we can invest. But with geopolitics, you never understand what's the angle and what they are doing,” she added.

Li said BYD (BYDDY) has decided not to sell passenger cars in the U.S. for now, despite having been in the country “for a long time,” describing the market as “complicated.”

“We don't have clarity, visibility and stability there so we're saying let's hold and not to go to the US for passenger cars at this moment,” Li said.

BYD (BYDDF) has continued to expand overseas despite geopolitical challenges. The company’s global vehicle sales rose 17% Y/Y to 463,561 units in September, according to data reported earlier this month.

Li also said BYD’s Hong Kong-listed stock was “super undervalued” compared with U.S. companies, saying the company is “an engineering firm and not just a car company.”

She also described Nvidia (NVDA) as a “very strong” chip partner for BYD (BYDDF) and said the company is a leader in multiple businesses beyond cars, including energy storage and solar.