BYD Ships Explained: Fleet Size, Capacity and the Reported Order for 10 More
BYD doesn’t just build cars, it now moves them itself. The company has put a fleet of its own roll-on/roll-off car carriers into service, and shipping reports from September say it has ordered ten more. Here’s what’s confirmed, what’s only reported, and why it matters for the BYD cars arriving in Britain and across Europe.
Why BYD built its own ships
BYD’s overseas sales have grown faster than the world’s car-carrier capacity. Chartering ships from third parties became expensive, with charter rates reported at up to $150,000 a day in 2024, so in 2022 BYD committed around 5 billion yuan (roughly $687 million) to a fleet of its own. BYD has said it expects its own ships to cut per-vehicle shipping costs by 30 to 40 percent. The strategy fits the bigger picture of a company that is now one of the world’s major car exporters, as we cover in our guide to what BYD stands for and who owns it.
The fleet BYD has now
The first ship, BYD Explorer No.1, was delivered in January 2024. It carries up to 7,000 vehicles, runs on liquefied natural gas, and is leased to BYD by Zodiac Maritime rather than owned outright. It reached Bremerhaven in Germany early in 2024 with around 3,000 electric cars on board.
BYD has since added further ships named after Chinese cities: Changzhou, Hefei, Shenzhen, Changsha, Xi’an, Zhengzhou and Jinan, which brings the fleet to eight. Capacities range from around 7,000 to 9,200 vehicles. The BYD Shenzhen, delivered in April 2025, is a dual-fuel ship about 220 metres long with 16 decks and room for 9,200 cars, which its builder, China Merchants Industry, described as the largest car carrier delivered anywhere in the world at the time.
Has BYD ordered more ships?
Reports say yes, but it’s ten ships rather than nine, and neither BYD nor the shipbuilder has confirmed it. Shipping publications including New Ships reported in early September that BYD had ordered ten more car carriers, each able to hold 9,200 cars, from China Merchants Industry’s Jinling and Haimen yards. If the reports are accurate, deliveries would be phased between 2027 and 2029.
| Detail | Reported |
|---|---|
| Ships ordered | 10 |
| Capacity each | 9,200 cars |
| Combined capacity | 92,000 cars |
| Shipbuilder | China Merchants Industry |
| Deliveries | 2027 to 2029 |
| Fleet afterwards | 18 ships, over 130,000 cars |
| Status | Unconfirmed by BYD |
One thing to watch for: a separate order of ten LNG dual-fuel ships, with deliveries from 2029, has been reported at Guangzhou Shipyard International, but that has since been attributed to another shipping company, Ray Car Carriers, not to BYD. The two are easy to confuse.
What it means for UK buyers
Ships don’t change the price on a forecourt overnight, but control over shipping helps BYD keep costs down and deliveries predictable as exports surge. The company exported around 1.05 million vehicles in 2025, and 972,794 in the first seven months of 2026 alone, up almost 80 percent on a year earlier. That volume feeds models such as the Atto 3, Seal and Dolphin Surf. We’ll update this article if BYD or the shipyard confirms the new order.
