With sales falling, BYD plans to give autonomy to each of its five brands

BYD is preparing to split its central institute of automotive engineering into five independent units — one for each brand in the group — in response to the roughly 20% drop in sales in the first five months of 2026. The information comes from leaks to the Chinese press, published by the Sina portal and released by the CarNewsChina website; The company has not yet officially confirmed the restructuring.

Under the proposal, the Automotive Engineering Research Institute, currently centralized, would give way to five autonomous centers, linked to the Dynasty, Ocean, Denza, Fang Cheng Bao and Yangwang brands. Each division would have autonomy over the definition of products and the planning of vehicles, with the team of the old central structure transferred to the teams of each brand.

The central core would be maintained only as a repository of basic technologies, concentrated on innovations such as blade batteries, platforms dedicated to electrics and electronic architecture. The chassis adjustment and the specific applications of each model would pass to the teams.

The objective is to end the overlapping of products and bring engineering closer to the demands of each segment. Until now, the definition of cars was centralized, which often caused cannibalization between the Dynasty and Ocean lines, which competed for similar price ranges — in a portfolio ranging from entry-level models, around 100 thousand yuan (US$ 14.8 thousand), to sports cars of up to 1 million yuan (US$ 147.7 thousand).

The restructuring would be accompanied by a tougher financial policy. Dynasty, Ocean, Denza and Fang Cheng Bao would have to self-finance and pay market prices to use shared corporate resources; ultra-luxury brand Yangwang would be temporarily exempt from those targets. The measure promises efficiency gains, but may increase internal complexity and intensify the competition for resources between divisions.

The shift responds to a difficult moment. In the first five months of 2026, BYD sold about 1.4 million vehicles, down 20% year-on-year, amid a slowdown in Chinese demand — pressured by local competition and changes in subsidies — that has been going on for several months. Part of the decline in the domestic market has been cushioned by the expansion abroad, which has been breaking monthly records. At the same time, the group reinforces the premium appeal, with launches such as the Dynasty Great Tang crossover and the Ocean Seal 08 sedan. The basic answer, however, is to exchange growth purely in volume for efficiency and profitability, in a decentralized model similar to that adopted by rival Geely to stabilize margins.