BYD exploring WEC entry amid increased Chinese interest

So they're trying to get into motorsport in general, F1, WEC, who knows what else?

How does an all EV company plan on making Hybrid Power Units

It's not all EV, they make plenty of hybrid cars, although idk if they outsource the ICE or make it in house

Long story short : with money.

They are not all EV though, and make plenty of hybrids, including their own ICE

Chinese brands in international motorsport will happen sooner or later. It feels inevitable. Also, a side effect of that could be bringing back Shanghai to WEC. If so, it could totally replace Qatar with no regrets.

Why can’t we have EV vs ICE/ hybrid

Old news

I’m surprised we’re not seeing a return to Shanghai anyway. It’s a huge market for manufacturers so I would’ve expected there to be more of a push to go there.

the article mention they are looking into motorsports that uses hybrid drive, so it pretty much just F1 and WEC now. WRC roll back to ICE only next year and I doubt they are interested in Indycar.

I'm not sure on their cheaper cars but the Yangwang U7 PHEV sedan has a in house designed boxer engine.

Because battery technology still isn’t at a point yet where it can recharge in the same time it takes for a hybrid to refuel.

We can only hope the race cars are better looking than the various boring looking cheap homogenous blobs that are now driving around everywhere.Odds on the GT3 will look like a car designed by AI combining McLaren,Ferrari & Corvette GT3s.

Lol the dsc vs s365 “rivalry” is alive and well clearly

WRC is ICE only since last year

And copied designs.

It's already happened years ago when Lynk&Co entered WTCR (granted, it was mostly just a rebranded Volvo with the same team behind it, but it was a Chinese brand with a brand-new Chinese car)

It's the Chinese still interested on foreign cars?

Because hybrid race unit powers are enough for an ev car. It's tech for regeneration and to try to improve efficiency

Sure, with changing the whole car during pit stops instead of just the tyres, to get a new, charged up battery? I think we've already gone through this at some point...

Demand isn’t as strong as before but it’s still a big market for manufacturers. By sales, China is the second most important market for Porsche (1st being the US). I would imagine it is a similar story for many manufacturers.

I wouldn’t be surprised if China has overtaken the US after the tariffs either. They really hurt Porsche’s sales in the US.

i guess it really depends. Problem with western cars is either that they are unreasonable priced or the software simply sucks.

It's the battery. The energy density of a battery is nowhere that of conventional fuel

Chinese brands in motorsports will happen eventually. Personally, I think Geely, SAIC and BYD are probably the best candidate to do so. These brands has quite significant engineering capabilities and quite relentless in improving their products. They also do build some interesting cars that might stand equal footing to established brands or break new ground with some innovative new ideas. Some of these brands have pretty good and efficient hybrids systems but time will tell how well they fare long term. They definitely need motorsports for the marketing and also some RnD as their main problem for me is their near complete inability to get the ride comfort and basic handling correct. I am not even saying fun to drive for enthusiasts but even basic throttle inconsistencie, poor day to day handlings or horrible rear suspension tuning.

I heard rumors they were contemplating FE as well (which would make sense)

Oh wow I didn‘t know that, do they use some kind of sustainable fuel or just went fuck it, let‘s do it?

Replace whole battery Both of em can have cons and pros. Let em race to their advantage

Smhow replace full battery only

WRC has been using 100% sustainable fuel since 2022.

Cool, thanks for the info!

It's not that easy. They're not exactly light and handy. Plus, they need to be mounted very securely and with all their vibration dampening mechanisms (something that is currently giving the folks over at Aston a lot of headache). All that might take LAPS to complete.

It’s childish how each one acts towards each other too.

I wonder which manufacturer’s data they will steal to get started on this project.

There isn't any rule about that you have to make your own engine or something. Rules are flexible. If the provide the engine from other manufacturers or work with another manufacturer, nobody says it's wrong or something.

That would be cool. They're already getting into moto2 and worldsportbike. I'd love to see them in WEC

imagine they buy prodrive so they can say its an in house effort

as if indy would let chinese brand in to begin with

I don't mind their presence honestly, it's always nice to see a brand get invested in motorsports

Considering how the Chinese automotive and aerospace industries have expanded by copying or stealing western and russian products and IP, it's not hard for me to imagine a Chinese carmaker entering a Porsche 963 with different headlights.

My money is on Porsche.

I really wonder where they having that money to develop Hypercar and WEC, as BYD really likes to keep debts with their supply chains and dealerships. Now, Chinese govt stops any incentive in their automakers and requires automakers needing to pay the money in supply chains in short while. I don’t really see BYD able to spend their money that they want.

The low level of the debate on this sub... You'd be surprised how some of your favourite manufacturers and supposedly Sportscar powerhouses spend their time and efforts copying each others. Some OEMs hire photographers on purpose to spend their weekend spying their competition

Chinese software isn't without faults either, there already placed ban by goverment of electric hidden door handles that affected BYD other than sometimes error, there's also many cases of people got burned alive because that type of handles can't function even when fire started. In douyin (chinese tiktok there's many post of softwar malfunction or even there's few post of newly bought cars & its electric cannot even start.

U got 6 upvotes, you survived mass downvotes by wumao. Any tips to share?

There will definitely be Chinese brands in endurance at some point in the future. Geely has Polestar, who are capable of handling a program like that and SAIC owns MG IPs which have some history in racing.

Yep, you are correct. I made the comment referencing what you are talking about and the well know espionage skills the Chinese have when it comes to design and manufacturing. I guess humor is gone from this sub as well. It’s a shame.

Probably because I've commented after the post had "cooled off".

Humor or cheap racism?... It's 2026, all western OEMs are lobbying to prevent Chinese cars being sold in their markets because they can't compete, and people are still stuck on the "China copy" wagon. I guess no one learned from the Japanese, then the Koreans.

Alpine didn't make their own engines, Lamborghini didn't make their own, McLaren aren't making their own, Aston didn't make their own. So, just the same way

Everything is not “cheap racism” dude. Copying, cheating, or whatever you want to call it is part of China’s win at all costs culture.

With LMDh they only need to make an engine.

They could buy the Alpines

I never claimed that chinese software is perfect. But overall Europe is far behind compared to certain US and Chinese brands when it comes to software.

Not even that, everything can be outsourced or rebranded. Look at Alpine LMP1. All you need is money.

More interest, more racing

How is polestar setup and capable for motorsports? I thought it was a sr designer or something from Volvo bought the use of their chassis and the backing of Chinese money to make them EVs. They aren’t affiliated with any motorsports or Volvo afaik, right?

Ok. Should have used their current name Cyan Racing. Polestar was originally Cyan Racing handling Volvo's touring car programmes since the mid 90s. When Polestar was acquired by Geely and they decided to produce road cars, the former Polestar was rechristened into Cyan Racing taking over Lynk Co's TCR programme. In short, Cyan Racing can definitely handle a WEC entry especially if its based on an LMDh.

Renault engineers still had to work on the engine since it was not reliable enough to make a 24h race.

Ah gotcha. I didn’t know the racing side had been spun off (again)