BYD's 1st car carrier sets sail fully loaded, 7 more to join fleet in next 2 years

BYD Explorer No.1 will be open to partners while serving BYD in the future, the NEV maker said. (Image credit: BYD) BYD's (OTCMKTS: BYDDF) first car carrier has completed loading vehicles at Yantai Port in Shandong and Xiaomo Port in Shenzhen and set sail, the company announced today. The vessel, named BYD Explorer No.1, is BYD's first roll-on roll-off (ro-ro) car carrier, with a length of 199.9 meters and 7,000 standard parking spaces. Over the next two years, BYD has seven other ro-ro vessels in operation, where the company's energy storage battery technology, and axle-belt generator system will be used, the company said. BYD Explorer No. 1 is a 7,000-CEU (car equivalent unit) car carrier built by CIMC Raffles, a subsidiary of state-owned China International Marine Containers (CIMC), for international shipping company Zodiac Maritime. The vessel was chartered by the owner to BYD as the first vessel in the Chinese new energy vehicle (NEV) maker's fleet. The BYD Explorer No.1 has an overall length of 199.9 meters, a beam of 38 meters, a design draft of 8.6 meters and a design speed of 19 knots (35 km/h). The vessel arrived at the Yantai port of on January 9 to begin loading, and was scheduled to load vehicles at the Xiaomo Port in Shenzhen for shipment to Europe, according to a CIMC statement earlier this month. BYD Explorer No.1 completed its delivery and maiden voyage ceremonies at Yantai Port in Xiaomo Port, during which vehicles for export were orderly loaded and eventually reached full capacity, BYD said today. The ship's sailing marks a new stage in BYD's expansion into overseas markets, the company said. The ro-ro vessel will be open to partners in the future while serving BYD, it said. BYD sold a record 341,043 NEVs in December, bringing full-year 2023 sales to 3,024,417 units. The company sold 36,095 NEVs overseas in December, giving it 242,765 overseas NEV sales in 2023, about a five-fold increase from 2022, according to data compiled by CnEVPost. BYD beats Tesla in quarterly BEV sales for 1st time ever