The Big Take
BYD Is Winning the Global Race to Make Cheaper EVs
The Chinese company is flooding markets with its cars—while the US is doing everything it can to keep the booming brand out.
Malta, a tiny archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea, might not seem worth the attention of a disruptive new car brand. The nation of just under 564,000 is known as a sunny tourist destination with limestone sea cliffs, ancient temples and lax regulation. About 7,200 new cars were registered in the country last year, approximately one-seventeenth the volume sold in a single day in the US. Yet the Maltese market isn’t too small for BYD Co., the Chinese electric-vehicle giant.
