BYD has been laying out the photovoltaic sector for nearly two decades, and it is leveraging photovoltaic business in Brazil to further boost the development of energy storage.
According to Foresee Energy, BYD recently launched a new move in Brazil: 233 of its auto dealers have started selling photovoltaic solar kits.
A 4.8kWp device set contains 8 600W modules, inverters, brackets and cables, covering installation, grid certification and one-year insurance. The total price is about 26,000 RMB, which can be paid in 36 installments. There is no requirement that buyers own a BYD vehicle, and users of any car brand can purchase it. If you buy the new BYD Song Pro Flex, the photovoltaic kit is eligible for zero-down-payment and zero-interest installment plans.
If you think this is just an automaker casually selling some solar panels as a side business, you are oversimplifying this matter.
The first reaction of many people after seeing this news is: When did BYD start to do photovoltaic business?
The answer is: 2007.
In that year, BYD had already gained a firm foothold in the three major markets of rechargeable batteries, mobile phone OEM manufacturing and automobiles. Wang Chuanfu had a new energy dream in mind — in the future, people would live in houses powered by photovoltaic and energy storage systems, and drive BYD’s electric vehicles. He asked Vice President He Long to lead a R&D team composed of more than a dozen technicians, to transplant the technology of automobile body panels to solar photovoltaics.
In 2008, BYD Solar was established. In December of the same year, it invested 500 million RMB in Shangluo, Shaanxi to build a polysilicon and solar cell project. In 2009, BYD also built the world’s first lithium iron phosphate energy storage power station, and launched the world’s first plug-in hybrid vehicle F3DM. In that year, BYD placed bets on three things at the same time: photovoltaics, energy storage and electric vehicles.
In 2010, Wang Chuanfu officially designated new energy vehicles, solar power stations and energy storage power stations as the three major new energy directions of the company.
That is to say, long before many people first heard that “BYD does photovoltaic business”, this company has been running on this track for nearly two decades. Its photovoltaic products have been exported to more than 100 countries and regions around the world from China.
In September 2020, BYD took a stake in Canadian Solar, one of the world’s top five photovoltaic module shippers. In early 2022, it made a strategic investment in Fujian Jinshi Energy — this company focuses on heterojunction cell equipment, and took the lead in establishing the first national engineering research center in China’s photovoltaic industry. Such a photovoltaic equipment manufacturer has received capital contributions from CATL, BYD and state-owned capital, and successively signed cooperation agreements with leading module enterprises such as LONGi, JA Solar and Tongwei. Such a lineup is really luxurious.
Nowadays, BYD has mastered the full industrial chain technologies of silicon ingots, silicon wafers, cells and modules. The photovoltaic base in Shangluo, Shaanxi has a designed annual production capacity of 1000 MW, with a total investment of 4.5 billion RMB. The production capacity of photovoltaic module production line at the Campinas plant in Brazil has reached 0.5 GW, and the cumulative output exceeded 2 million units as early as 2022.
A company that has been laying out in the photovoltaic field for nearly two decades, mastered the full industrial chain and built production bases around the world, selling solar panels through 233 dealers in Brazil — this is not cross-border expansion, but a breakthrough after long-term accumulation.
Why Brazil?
BYD opened a photovoltaic module plant in Campinas, Brazil in 2017, with an investment of about 47.79 million US dollars. In April 2022, it opened a new production line. By October 2022, the cumulative output of photovoltaic modules at the Brazilian plant exceeded 2 million units.
After five years of operation in Brazil, it just placed solar panels in auto dealerships. This is not a reckless decision, but a step-by-step deployment.
Brazil has its particularities. 80% of its land area is located in tropical regions, with an average annual sunshine volume of 1700 to 1800 kWh per square meter. The Brazilian government introduced the net metering policy as early as 2012, opening the door for residential photovoltaics. Between 2014 and 2019, multiple rounds of photovoltaic tenders were completed, with a total tender volume of about 4.4 GW.
How big is the market? In the first quarter of 2026, Brazil’s new photovoltaic installed capacity reached 4.4 GW, of which distributed photovoltaics contributed 2.2 GW. The new distributed photovoltaic installed capacity in the first quarter was 2177 MW, corresponding to more than 245,000 new systems, and the average size of a single distributed generation system was 8.8 kW. Some institutions predict that the new installed capacity of distributed photovoltaics in Brazil in 2026 is expected to reach 8.7 GW.
245,000 residential photovoltaic systems in one quarter, and the potential annual installed capacity may be close to 9 GW — this market is large enough and scattered enough. Whoever spreads the channels first can grab the most customers.
BYD does not only sell photovoltaics in Brazil. The Camacari plant in Bahia took only 15 months from groundbreaking to the roll-off of the first vehicle, with a planned production capacity of 150,000 vehicles. The 100,000th new energy vehicle has rolled off the production line. Shortly after, it announced an additional investment of 500 million reais (about 660 million RMB) to build an energy storage battery production base. The three lines of vehicles, photovoltaics and energy storage are being deployed simultaneously in Brazil.
233 dealers are distributed in all states and federal districts across Brazil. The number will reach 300 within the year, and the 2027 target is 400. BYD Brazil itself says that this is already the largest solar panel sales network in Brazil.
Essentially, putting solar panels into dealerships connects the manufacturing capacity, channel network and brand awareness accumulated over five years.
There is a detail in this 4.8kWp photovoltaic system: it is not equipped with energy storage.
It generates electricity for self-use during the day, and the excess electricity is sold to the grid. What to do at night? Buy electricity from the grid.
Why not equip it with energy storage? Because energy storage is the thing that is really valuable, and it is also BYD’s real hidden card.
In the global energy storage system shipment ranking in the first half of 2026, BYD Energy Storage jumped from third to first, surpassing Sungrow Power, Huawei and Tesla. The global energy storage market has officially entered a stage of competition among the top four players, with BYD Energy Storage ranking first in the world and Tesla falling to fourth. In terms of energy storage cell shipments, the shipment volume of each top enterprise exceeded 30GWh in the first half of the year.
BYD is making full efforts in overseas markets. BYD first won the 12.5GWh global largest grid-side energy storage project in Saudi Arabia, and then signed a 11.275GWh cooperation agreement with the UAE energy giant Masdar to provide energy storage solutions for the Abu Dhabi RTC all-weather renewable energy project. This is the world’s first GW-level all-weather renewable energy project. Its energy storage orders have been scheduled to 2028.
A household that has installed photovoltaics will most likely be equipped with energy storage in the next step — and energy storage is exactly BYD’s strongest advantage that ranks first in the world. Photovoltaics is the entry point, and energy storage is the profit pool. Spreading this logic in Brazil means using photovoltaics to acquire customers and making profits through energy storage.
BYD does not hide its intentions. The Brazilian side has stated that it will also provide batteries and other energy solutions at these sales points in the future. Letting users install solar panels first, and then equip them with energy storage batteries, this is a well-laid plan.
In 2007, when Wang Chuanfu led more than a dozen technicians to carry out photovoltaic R&D, he might not have expected that this road would take so long.
It took a stake in Canadian Solar in 2020, invested in Jinshi Energy in 2022, and deployed solar panels through 233 Brazilian dealers in 2026. Nearly two decades have passed in between.
In the past two decades, BYD has done three things: mastering full industrial chain technologies, building global production bases, and realizing the closed loop of “photovoltaics – energy storage – electric vehicles”.
In the first half of 2026, BYD’s operating revenue reached 344.8 billion RMB, a year-on-year decrease of 7.13%; the attributable net profit reached 12.3 billion RMB, a year-on-year decrease of 20.54%. However, its R&D investment reached 28.9 billion RMB, and the cumulative R&D investment exceeded 2700 billion RMB. Its cash reserve reached 167.4 billion RMB.
The net profit is declining, while the R&D investment is surging. With 167.4 billion RMB in cash on the account and 28.9 billion RMB invested in R&D — this is not a sign of contraction, but a sign of accumulating strength.
BYD exported 792,000 vehicles in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 67.8%. Its overseas revenue reached 181.268 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of nearly 34%, accounting for 52.57% of the total revenue. For the first time, overseas revenue exceeded domestic revenue.
The solar panels sold at 233 stores in Brazil are produced at the Campinas plant. The energy storage batteries are produced at the newly built production line in Brazil. Electric vehicles roll off the production line at the Camacari plant. The 233 dealers are shared by all three businesses. The three businesses share one set of network, one brand and one group of customers.
Competitors are still competing for the range and price of the next vehicle. What BYD is doing is: photovoltaic power generation, energy storage peak shaving, and electric vehicle power consumption — all three links are self-developed and self-produced, with shared channels and bundled sales.
You buy my car, install my photovoltaics, and use my energy storage, and your entire energy life is in my system.
This is the real moat.
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