BYD has temporarily stopped assembling the King sedan at its Camaçari plant in Bahia, Brazil, shifting almost all of the line’s capacity to the Atto 2. Company engineers told journalists that the move reflects strong demand for the new SUV, not weak interest in the King. The Atto 2 had gathered about 7,000 pre-orders, and BYD says its King stock is sufficient to keep dealerships supplied until assembly restarts.
The King is a plug-in hybrid midsize sedan launched in Brazil in 2024. Its two versions pair a 1.5-liter gasoline engine with a front electric motor: the GL makes 209 hp and has an 8.3-kWh battery, while the GS produces 235 hp and uses an 18.3-kWh pack. The current model runs on gasoline only.
The sedan briefly topped Brazil’s midsize-sedan rankings, outselling the Toyota Corolla in August and September. King sales were 1,432 versus 855 for the Corolla in August, then 1,666 versus 475 in September. Toyota’s production disruption during a factory-line transfer helped the comparison; across the first nine months, the Corolla still led with 16,018 sales to the King’s 12,906.
BYD has not said that the production pause signals an imminent redesign or a flex-fuel version. The company is testing updated King prototypes and has plans to adapt Camaçari-built hybrids for ethanol, but the confirmed reason for the current shift is the Atto 2 order backlog.