Finance
Chinese EV giant BYD expands in Europe with premium brand Denza launch
A BYD Denza Z9 GT electric car on display in Hong Kong in February 2025.
Ucg | Universal Images Group | Getty Images
BEIJING — Chinese electric car giant BYD is pushing ahead into Europe, launching its premium Denza brand in the region despite rising trade tensions.
The first model, the Z9GT, is set to arrive in European showrooms in the fourth quarter of 2025, BYD said Wednesday during Brera Design Week in Milan. The company did not specify prices or a delivery date for the station wagon-type car.
The Z9GT for Europe will come in both battery-only and plug-in hybrid versions, BYD said.
BYD already sells electric cars in Europe. The company initially formed the Denza brand in 2010 with Daimler, now the Mercedes-Benz Group. The sub-brand was revamped in 2021 and sells cars in China, with the German automaker reducing its equity interest to 10%.
The European Union last year announced 17% duties on imports of BYD battery electric vehicles over claims of “unfair” production subsidies. Last month, Chinese and EU officials discussed issues related to the electric car supply chain during a meeting in Beijing.
The second Denza model for Europe will be a seven-seat multi-purpose vehicle called the D9, BYD said, without specifying a delivery date.
“We’re thrilled to be introducing Denza to European customers, starting here in Milan and accelerating as 2025 progresses,” Stella Li, executive vice president at BYD, said in a statement.
Surging overseas sales
BYD has ramped up its overseas sales since late 2022. In the first quarter of this year, the company said it sold more than 206,000 cars outside China, more than double that of the year-ago period and already reaching roughly half of the number of cars it sold overseas last year.
The automaker’s first-quarter revenue grew by at least 86% from a year ago to 8.5 billion yuan ($1.2 billion), according to a filing on Tuesday.
BYD noted “substantial growth” in its international sales as it achieved record new energy vehicle sales in the first quarter, with 986,098 passenger cars sold. The Chinese automaker no longer makes traditional fuel-powered passenger cars.
Most of BYD’s cars target a lower price segment than that of Tesla, and the Chinese company overtook Elon Musk’s automaker in total sales last year.
BYD also sold more battery-only passenger cars in the first quarter, with sales of 416,388 units — more than Tesla’s 172,754 vehicles sold in China during that time, according to delivery numbers published by the China Passenger Car Association.
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Dutch digital bank Bunq is plotting re-entry into the U.K. to tap into a “large and underserved” market of some 2.8 million British “digital nomads.”
Pavlo Gonchar | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Dutch digital bank Bunq on Tuesday said it’s filed for broker-dealer registration in the U.S. as it looks to further expand across the Atlantic.
Bunq CEO Ali Niknam said the broker-dealer application will be an initial step toward securing a full banking license. He couldn’t offer a firm timeline for when Bunq will secure this authorization in the U.S. — but said he’s excited for its growth prospects in the country.
Obtaining a broker-dealer license will mean Bunq “can offer our users who have an international footprint — which is the user demography we’re aiming for — a great number of our services,” Niknam told CNBC. Bunq mainly caters for “digital nomads,” individuals who can live and work from anywhere remotely.
Bunq will be able to offer most of its services in the U.S. with the exception of a savings account after securing broker-dealer authorization, Niknam added.
Bunq, which touts itself as a bank for “digital nomads,” currently has a banking license in the European Union. It has applied for an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) in the U.K. Bunq previously had operations in Britain but forced to withdraw from the country in 2020 due to Brexit.
Bunq initially filed for a U.S. Federal bank charter in April 2023. However, it withdrew the application a year later, citing issues between its Dutch regulator and U.S. agencies. The company plans to resubmit its application for a full U.S. banking license later this year.
65% jump in profit
Beyond the update on international expansion, Bunq also on Tuesday reported a 65% year-over-year jump in profit to 85.3 million euros ($97.2 million). That jump was primarily driven by a 55% increase in net interest income, while net fee income also grew 35%.
Similarly to fintech peers such as N26 and Monzo, Bunq has benefited from a high interest rate environment by pocketing yields on customer deposits sat at the central bank.
Bunq’s CEO told CNBC that, while high interest rates have certainly helped, more generally Bunq is seeing increased usage of the platform and has been focused on cost efficiency from an operational perspective.
“Because we are so lean and mean, and because we have set up all of our systems from scratch … we have been able to not only increase our profits, but also offer very good interest rates in the European market in general, and in the Netherlands specifically,” Niknam said.
More recently, central banks in the EU and U.K. and U.S. have moved to slash interest rates in response to falling inflation and concerns of an economic slowdown, which can bite into bank earnings.
Niknam said he’s not concerned by the prospect of rates coming down and expects potential declines in interest income to be offset by a “diversified” revenue mix that includes income from paid subscription products, as well as new features. Bunq recently launched a tool that lets users trade stocks.
“This is different in continental Europe to the U.K. We had negative interest rates for long,” Niknam told CNBC. “So as we were growing, actually our cost base was also growing because we had to pay for all the deposits that people deposited a Bunq so I think we’re in a great position in 2025
Bunq is coming up against heaps of competition, especially in the U.S. market. America is already served by established consumer banking giants, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup. It’s also home to several major fintech brands, such as Chime and Robinhood.
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