Leaked email signals BYDs plan to heat up EV price war [Video]

According to a leaked letter circulating on social media yesterday, BYD has asked its suppliers to accept price cuts in the coming year – a major signal that the Chinese EV maker is gearing up to intensify the price war in China even further, all while pushing harder into Europe and other markets.

A screenshot of an email from BYD circulated on Weibo yesterday, according to Reuters, demanding “10% price cuts from an unnamed supplier from January.”

BYD’s PR and branding director Li Yunfei responded to the leak in a Weibo post: “Annual bargaining with suppliers is a common practice in the automotive industry,” according to Bloomberg. “We put forward price reduction targets to suppliers. They’re not mandatory requirements. We can negotiate.”

For the past two years or so, BYD has been leading the charge in an intense price war in China, pushing smaller companies to the edge while …