“Annual bargaining with suppliers is a common practice in the automotive industry,” Li Yunfei, BYD’s public relations and branding director, said in response to the email in a Weibo post on Wednesday. “We put forward price reduction targets to suppliers. They’re not mandatory requirements. We can negotiate.”
BYD has asked suppliers to accept price cuts next year in a signal the Chinese electric vehicle maker is preparing for the brutal price war in the world’s biggest auto market to intensify.
A screenshot of an email purportedly from the Shenzhen-based auto giant was circulating on social media Wednesday, demanding 10% price cuts from an unnamed supplier from January.
