When Wheels Traverse the 10,000-Kilometer Land and Sea Silk Road, BYD Becomes the "Chinese Token" of the New Era

When they drive Denza D9 to pick up the porcelain that best represents Chinese culture from Jingdezhen, select exquisitely designed silk from Hangzhou silk workshops, choose Wuyi Rock Tea from the first spring from Wuyi Mountain, and drive off the ferry onto Singaporean soil, you can hardly help but feel a sense of disorientation as if traveling through time and space.

Following BYD's arrival in the UK and Europe at the July 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed with a multi-brand matrix including Denza, Yangwang, Sealion 07, etc., launching a loud shot for Chinese new energy vehicles to enter the Western European market with the largest exhibition booth in global brand history, on August 25, the grand closing ceremony of the "2026 Silk Road 10,000 Li · Enlightening Road" Maritime Silk Road was held grandly in Singapore. BYD, as the full-transportation partner for this event, provided the entire event support fleet, completing a land and sea silk road expedition lasting 33 days and covering over 10,000 kilometers.

BYD Brand Booth at the Goodwood Festival of Speed

This 10,000-kilometer convoy set off from Xi'an, Shaanxi, the starting point of the overland Silk Road, on July 24, passing through cultural landmarks such as Jingdezhen, Jiangxi, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, and Wuyi Mountain, Fujian, following the millennium-old Silk Road cultural vein, crossing mountains and rivers, visiting the civilizational roots of silk, porcelain, and tea; the convoy crossed national borders, traversing Thailand and Malaysia in turn, finally arriving at the hub node of the maritime Silk Road, Singapore, completing this land-sea linked cultural and technological exploration journey.

Thousands of years ago, when merchant ships sailing across the sea along this channel delivered China's top-tier silk, porcelain, and tea into the hands of people from foreign lands, they saw an aesthetic and craftsmanship that a civilization had settled for hundreds of years. But today, this convoy starting from under the Xi'an Ancient City Wall, crossing the Indochina Peninsula and crossing the Strait of Malacca, hands over a more complete modern civilization solution: 5G data streams flowing in the vehicle infotainment system, battery cells lying on the chassis, every kilometer passing by outside the car window is the pulse of the ancient Silk Road beating in the contemporary era.

In the financial report released just recently for the first half of 2026, the confidence of this expedition was already backed by data: BYD's cumulative sales in the first half reached 1.8085 million units, of which the total volume of exports and local delivery in the overseas market reached 792,000 units, a strong increase of 67.8% year-on-year. Performance broken down by core markets is more substantial: In the first half, in Australia, BYD's cumulative sales of all powertrain models reached 52,300 units, a year-on-year increase of 124%, rising to second place among all car brands in Australia, second only to Toyota. BYD, which has been in the UK for a full 18 months, sold a cumulative 38,000 new cars locally in the first half of the year.

And Singapore happens to be the most substantial sample market for this era's dialogue.

You should know that in this harshest automotive arena for global entry barriers, the cost of one Certificate of Entitlement (COE) equals half a luxury car domestically; the car purchase list swept by consumers' fingertips is stacked with all the names that the global automotive industry is most proud of over the past century. It is on this tiny plot of land that BYD forcibly turned itself into part of the streetscape.

As of July 2026, BYD has consecutively held the Singapore passenger car brand sales champion title for 19 months; from January to July this year, the overall market share reached 24.7%, and all categories of Chinese car brands combined occupy nearly half of the local new car market. Singapore's total passenger car registration volume for the year is less than 60,000 units, with BYD stably delivering 1,100-1,400 units per month; almost every four new cars sold, one is from BYD. Walking on the streets of Singapore, around city landmarks such as Orchard Road, Sentosa, Merlion Park, and Botanical Gardens, BYD Sealion 07 (Sealion 7), Yuan PLUS Overseas Version ATTO 3, and Denza D9 can be seen everywhere; Chinese new energy vehicles have deeply integrated into Singapore's daily commuting landscape.

During this journey, a vivid detail was impressive: the local driver responsible for the overseas airport pickup and drop-off service for this event drives a Toyota Alphard MPV daily. During the conversation, he admitted that the Certificate of Entitlement he holds has only two years of validity left, and when exchanging the certificate, he plans to directly swap for a Denza D9. The high fuel costs are forcing local practitioners in Singapore to collectively shift to new energy.

We specifically visited BYD's exclusive general agent in Singapore, Vantage Automotive. In the land-scarce Lion City, the operator built a BYD + Denza dual-brand flagship showroom covering about 4,500 square meters, integrating product display, customer experience, and after-sales maintenance; it has four authorized dealer outlets under its portfolio, building a service network of 27 sales stores covering the whole island, the scale being rare in the local luxury brand channel system.

Singapore BYD General Agent New Car Showroom

Affected by the high Certificate of Entitlement cost and import tariffs, BYD's high-end sequence models sell at a significantly higher price locally than domestically: Denza D9 market price is worth more than 1.6 million RMB, Denza B5 and Denza B8 prices are both higher than the domestic versions. Even with high prices, local public opinion forms an interesting folk evaluation: Many Singaporean users believe that BYD system brands' current market status and user goodwill have already surpassed traditional BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Local circles even spread a playful verbal expression, calling the BBA legacy luxury brands "The Old Guard", while BYD, Denza and other Chinese new energy brands are the market's new favorites "The New Guard".

Behind this jest lies an answer that the Chinese automotive industry has been pursuing for more than half a century: We finally no longer trade low prices for market share, nor do we trade subsidies for growth increments.

Never has an industrial product been able to send China's technological confidence and cultural warmth packaged to the whole world like today's new energy vehicles. The Silk Road merchant teams from a thousand years ago transported out a civilization grown from the land; the convoy expediting along the same road today transports out strength grown from the workshop.

In the past, when we talked about "Globalization", we subconsciously felt we had to cater to others' rules, having to squat down to get the entry ticket. But the footprints BYD has walked along tell everyone: The true globalization that stands and takes the market is walking out with one's own 5,000-year cultural roots—from the Big Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an to the Merlion in Singapore, from the kiln fires in Jingdezhen to the track fireworks at Goodwood, the winds of old and new Silk Roads met head-on at the Strait of Malacca.

The era of silk and porcelain is the past, the era of smart EVs and photovoltaic energy storage is the present, and that channel that has been flowing for a thousand years has never broken; it's just that this time, carrying Chinese manufacturing forward are no longer camel caravans and sails, but rolling wheels and flashing lightning. Technology has power, culture has warmth, when the two merge into one, it is the Chinese overseas narrative that can most boost the confidence of the people.

Twenty thousand li of roads with clouds and moon, Chinese automobiles no longer need to try all means to prove "we are not inferior to others". Because in this new energy era deeply participated and even led by Chinese automakers, what we deliver is a future lifestyle that the world is willing to share and pay for.

When hardcore technology flows with the warmth of civilization, every wheel print of Chinese brands rushing to the globe will be walked with immense certainty and dignity.