On January 15, BYD announced a partnership with Grab, a Southeast Asian superapp, to provide 50,000 BYD new energy vehicles (NEVs) to Grab driver partners across Southeast Asia. This cooperation marks BYD’s further expansion into the Southeast Asian market.
Grab is a Singapore-based company, originally started as a taxi-hailing app in 2012. In 2013, it was renamed to GrabTaxi and introduced private car and motorbike-hailing services. Later, it expanded into food delivery, on-demand grocery shopping, and financial digital payment services.
The cooperation covers Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, involving a number of BYD models including the Denza D9, Atto 3 (also known as the Yuan Plus in the domestic Chinesemarket), Seal, and M6.
According to the agreement, BYD will provide competitive preferential prices to Grab’s fleet partners and cooperative drivers, including extended electric vehicle battery warranty services. Private-hire car drivers can rent electric vehicles from Grab’s fleet partners at a discount, or choose to obtain financing support under Grab’s Car Ownership Scheme. Furthermore, in countries such as Singapore and Thailand, Grab users can also choose to turn on the “Eco-friendly Travel” option, which will give them priority allocation of new energy vehicles at no additional charge.
Additionally, as part of the collaboration, Grab will work with BYD to deepen the integration of the Internet of Things between vehicles and Grab’s platform and services, including navigation and route planning optimization, and data algorithms.
BYD in Southeast Asia
Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest automobile market. On December 9, 2019, Blue Bird, the largest taxi operator in Indonesia, signed a cooperation agreement with BYD and announced the purchase of 200 T3 vehicles from BYD. This purchase was the largest pure electric taxi project in Indonesia at the time. Then in early 2024, BYD officially entered the Indonesian NEV passenger market with its Dolphin, Seal, and Atto 3.
Moreover in Thailand, in 2024, among the top ten best-selling brands, seven are Chinese brands, with BYD ranking first in sales throughout the year, with a market share of more than one-third. BYD also have a factory in Thailand and is building a second assembly plant in Cambodia.
Source: BYD, Grab, Mondaq
