BYD and Inter Milan sign a three-year agreement combining technology and sustainability.

For BYD, becoming Inter 's global automotive partner has a special meaning because "everyone loves football, and Inter was the first team to come to China, where it is very popular and has over 154 million fans," said Stella Li, executive vice president and CEO for Europe and the US of the Chinese automotive giant. At the root of this agreement, which sees BYD replace Volvo Car Italia, the historic sponsor of the Milanese team (and, incidentally, a brand owned by Geely, another large Chinese automotive group), are also shared values, underlined by all the managers (hosts included Giuseppe Marotta , president and CEO of the Nerazzurri, and Giorgio Ricci , chief revenue officer) present at the press conference announcing the project, which will last three years starting from the season starting in a few weeks: "We share with Inter a passion for innovation, sustainability, and technology as a tool in the fight against climate change," as Stella Li emphasized, "for which 120,000 engineers at BYD are working day and night, wanting to win this battle."

The partnership, according to Alfredo Altavilla , a long-time manager and now special advisor to the Chinese manufacturer, "is not a simple sponsorship of a football team, but a relationship based on shared values that will allow us to increase awareness of the BYD brand in all its aspects." Specifically, the company will provide 27 cars for the first team players, in addition to those reserved for managers and technical staff, for a total of around seventy vehicles . The models chosen are customized versions of the Sealion 7 electric SUV (313 hp and an 82.5 kWh battery for the rear-wheel drive version and 530 hp with a 91.3 kWh battery for the 4x4 version, with a 230 kW charging power) and the flagship Denza Z9 GT , the first units of which available in Italy will be destined for Inter Milan players.

"A technological manifesto of the group," as Altavilla calls it, with a 5.18-meter-long shooting brake body, under which lie, for the battery-powered version, three electric motors with a total power output approaching 1,000 hp or, for the plug-in hybrid version, a 2-liter turbocharged gasoline engine producing around 200 hp and three electric motors, bringing the total output to 860 hp. BYD, however, has also thought of Inter fans, who will be able to purchase a limited and customized Inter edition of the Sealion 7 , which, Altavilla explained, "could be followed by similar initiatives, also applied to lower-end models," such as the recently launched small electric Dolphin Surf. But this is just one of the many marketing initiatives BYD intends to implement as part of the agreement with Inter, starting with the activities planned at Milan's San Siro stadium. And speaking of the Lombard city, Altavilla took the opportunity to reaffirm BYD's ties with our country, which will be further cemented by the opening of the brand's European design center in Milan and the signing of component supply agreements for the company's Hungarian plant, scheduled to be ready by the end of 2025, with 20 of the 380 Italian companies he met months ago in Turin, during an event specially organized under the aegis of ANFIA.