Three Years and Nine Months, 10,000 Units: BYD Gnaws Down the World's Hardest Bone in Japan

Previously, at a delivery ceremony that wasn't very grand. BYD Vice President Liu Xueliang and Japanese Company President Atsushi Tokufuji stood in the store and handed the key of the 10,000th car to the owner. This car is the Sealion 06.

10,000 units. This number placed in the domestic market is not enough for BYD Ocean Network to sell in one hour. In BYD's September monthly sales of 396,000 units, it doesn't even count as a fraction. But the weight of these 10,000 units lies not in the numbers, but on the land of "Japan".

The Graveyard for Outsiders

First, a piece of trivia: Over the past 30 years, the share of imported cars in the Japanese market has never exceeded 10%.

Japan is the most closed car market in the world, without a doubt. Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Suzuki, and these local brands hold over 70% of the share. Consumers have a trust bordering on faith in cars from their own country. Ford withdrew, Vauxhall withdrew, Hyundai also withdrew. These giants, who rule the roost globally, came up with nothing in Japan.

What's more troublesome is electrification. Japan's pure electric penetration rate is only around 1.4%, charging facilities are few, consumers are conservative, and subsidy policies favor local brands. Selling EVs here is like selling umbrellas in a desert—you have to create the demand yourself.

In January 2023, BYD opened its first store in such a market.

A Curve of Constant Acceleration

Then look at the report card BYD submitted.

2023, 1,446 units. 2024, 2,221 units. 2025, 3,742 units, up 68% year-on-year. Entering 2026, the pace sped up significantly: First half registration volume 2,334 units, up 42.7% year-on-year. August single month orders 1,260 units, setting a new historical record.

Three years of consecutive growth, and the acceleration is getting faster. The shape of this curve is more important than any single data point—it shows that Japanese consumers' acceptance of BYD is not a novelty pulse, but trust accumulated through word-of-mouth and step-by-step.

Trust is the most scarce currency in Japan. Japanese consumers don't look at ads for cars, they look at reputation. A brand must survive a long observation period before being added to the car buying list. BYD survived this observation period in three years and nine months. Liu Xueliang said at the ceremony that the first 10,000 units took nearly four years, the next 10,000 will be much faster. These words are not mere pleasantries; the curve has already been drawn.

The Gap Torn Open by the Seal

BYD's turning point in Japan is the Seal.

This coupe launched in Japan in June 2024, priced from 5.28 million Yen, competing neck-and-neck with the Tesla Model 3. It did not take the low-price route; it went straight into the main battlefield of Japanese sedans.

What happened next even Japanese people didn't expect. The Seal won the grand championship of the "Japan EV Awards" for two consecutive years, and was selected for the top 10 "Japan Car of the Year 2024-2025"—alongside it on the list were Toyota Land Cruiser 250, Lexus LBX, these local giants. Blade Battery plus CTB body structure was awarded the "Annual Technology Award" by the Japan Automotive Research and Journalism Conference, scoring the highest score.

What's most exaggerated is Nikkei BP Inc. This largest professional publishing house in Japan tore a Seal apart inside out, wrote a 494-page report, priced at 880,000 Yen—over 40,000 RMB, enough to buy half a Qin. Selling a book at this price became industry news, showing the Japanese industry really wants to understand: where exactly Chinese EVs are advanced.

Sales can be accumulated slowly, but professional recognition cannot be bought. What the Seal helped BYD get is something deeper than orders—respect.

The Otter, Aimed at the Japanese Core

If the Seal was a key, then the Otter Racco launched late July walked straight into Japanese households.

What is a K-car? A unique Japanese lightweight vehicle specification, selling 1.67 million units a year, accounting for 30-40% of the entire new car market. This is an exclusive territory Japanese car companies have cultivated for decades, foreign brands have never touched—not that they didn't want to, they couldn't. Regulations, dimensions, usage scenarios are all Japanese characteristics. Without developing a car specifically for it, there isn't even an entry ticket.

BYD truly developed a car for it from scratch. The Otter is not a revamped Chinese model; it is designed from scratch strictly according to K-car regulations, unique among global foreign brands. Orders broke 1,000 in two weeks post-launch, accumulated about 1,500 units by end of August. August single month contributed about 80% of BYD's orders in Japan. Two months post-launch, orders are about to break 2,000 units. Top-spec version share is as high as 85%—Japanese people aren't looking for a bargain, they truly like it.

More worth pondering is the next step: Otter has officially announced going out of Japan, first to Macau, China and Sri Lanka. Subsequently will expand gradually with RHD markets as the core.

Understand? Japan is not just a sales market, it has become BYD's RHD strategy R&D base and touchstone. A car that can be developed through K-car regulations, going to RHD markets in Southeast Asia, South Asia, Oceania is a dominating strike.

Putting These 10,000 Units into the Big Picture

September, BYD New Energy sales 396,000 units, among which overseas sales 71,000 units, doubling year-on-year growth 107%. First nine months, overseas cumulative sales have exceeded 700,000 units, accounting for more than 20% of total sales. First half year overseas revenue 181.3 billion Yuan, accounting for 52.6% of total revenue, exceeding domestic for the first time. Management revealed, overseas unit profit about 20,000 Yuan, far higher than domestic sales. 2027, overseas target is 2.5 million units.

In this big plate, Japan's 10,000 units is less than 0.2%.

But overseas expansion has two types. One is loading cars onto ships to ship out, sell if it moves, switch places if it doesn't, this is trade. The other is diving into a country, researching its regulations, its streets, its consumers, building cars specifically for it, building channels, building after-sales, building trust, this is rooting.

The former produces volume, the latter produces brands. BYD building factories in Brazil, Indonesia, Hungary solves capacity and tariffs; in Japan sticking to K-car, solves another issue—proving it has the ability to forward-develop and operate locally in the world's most picky market. Once this capability runs through, it can be replicated to any market in the world.

Auto Web Review: So the significance of these 10,000 units has never been in Japan itself. The ceiling of the Japanese market is visible to the naked eye, but what BYD practiced here has no ceiling: A forward-development process for unfamiliar markets, a methodology from "exporting Chinese models" to "providing customized solutions for the local area", and a signboard of extremely high value—Even Japanese people recognize Chinese EVs, do consumers in other markets still need to hesitate?

Three years and nine months, 10,000 units. BYD, in the world's most closed market, used the clumsiest but most solid method to gnaw the hardest bone. The next 10,000 units will come much faster. And what is more worth looking forward to than the next 10,000 units is the day the Otters swim towards global RHD markets. Looking back then, this small delivery ceremony in Hiratsuka City will be a prologue to a bigger story.