New Delhi: Chinese electric vehicle (EV) giant BYD is eyeing double-digit sales growth in India in 2026, as it looks to get its vehicles certified locally to meet the country’s regulatory norms and remove import limits on its cars.
Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of its largest showroom in the country in Delhi on Wednesday, a top BYD executive said that the company is working on homologating BYD Seal and BYD Sealion with Indian agencies, which will remove the import cap of 2,500 units and allow it to sell them based on demand in the market.
According to Indian laws, a carmaker can sell their models that are homologated outside India but with a limit of 2,500 units every year. Homologation is the official approval process through which a testing agency determines whether the car meets a country’s regulatory standards and is fit to run on roads.
“Two of the models, Atto3 and eMax7, are certified by Indian agencies so we can sell them according to the demand…We will not be able to spell out the timeline for the two models but yes we are working on it,” Rajeev Chauhan, executive vice-president at BYD India, told reporters.
“This year, we hope to log double-digit growth, that is our bare minimum expectation,” Chauhan added.
On new launches and potential introduction of hybrid vehicles, Chauhan said that the company continues to track the development of the plug-in hybrid market of cars that combine petrol/diesel engine with electric motor that can be charged by plugging into an external power source.
Sales momentum
sells four electric vehicle models in India—eMax 7, Atto 3, Sealion 7, and Seal. The first two models are homologated in India, thus there is no limit to their imports in the country.
In 2025, its sales grew 88% to 5,402 units, as per data from the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (Fada). India rose 77% to about 177,000 units last year.
While BYD’s numbers are much smaller in India compared to its global sales of more than 4.6 million units, it has outsold carmakers like Hyundai and Kia in the EV market so far. The starting price of BYD vehicles range from ₹24 lakh to ₹49 lakh, putting it in the premium segment.
When asked whether the company is bracing for intensified competition as several new carmakers scale up, including Vietnam’s , Chauhan said the company is closely monitoring the evolving EV landscape.
“We will continue to focus our efforts in the premium space,” he said, suggesting that the company has no plans of getting into a price war just yet.
One of the growth levers, Chauhan said, is to ensure more sales of its Sealion model that has emerged as one of the fastest-selling brands in India.
BYD’s India ambitions mirror those of other global carmakers such as Suzuki, Honda, Renault, and Hyundai that have underscored the country’s importance in their future international EV growth plans.
With not yet allowed to flow seamlessly into the automobile sector, BYD has to rely on importing fully built cars which attract tariffs up to 110%.