Wikipedia (en)
BYD Auto Co., Ltd. is the automotive subsidiary of BYD Company, a publicly listed Chinese multinational manufacturing company. It manufactures passenger battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), collectively known as new energy vehicles (NEVs) in China. It also produces battery electric buses and trucks.
BYD Auto was founded in January 2003 by BYD owner Wang Chuanfu, following BYD's acquisition of Xi'an Qinchuan Automobile. The first car designed by BYD, the BYD F3, entered production in 2005. BYD started producing its first plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, the BYD F3DM in 2008, followed by its first production battery electric vehicle, the BYD e6 in 2009. BYD ended production of purely internal combustion engined cars in March 2022 to focus on new energy vehicles. The company sells its vehicles under the main BYD brand, and high-end vehicles under its Denza, Yangwang and Fangchengbao brands. Since 2021, the company is expanding sales of passenger cars into overseas markets in Europe, Southeast Asia, Oceania and South America.
Following a series of decline in sales and profit, BYD Auto has experienced substantial sales growth since 2020 due to the increasing market share of new energy vehicles in China. BYD became the top-selling battery electric vehicle manufacturer in the world after overtaking Tesla in the fourth quarter of 2023. BYD is also the best-selling car brand in China since the first quarter of 2023, overtaking Volkswagen which held the title since the liberalisation of the Chinese automotive industry.The company is characterised by its extensive vertical integration, leveraging BYD group's expertise in producing batteries and other related components such as electric motors and electronic controls. All components in BYD vehicles except tires and windows are claimed to be produced in-house within the BYD group. The group operates lithium mines, lithium processing, battery production, and an in-house computer chip unit, ensuring control and flexibility in production cost and production volume. BYD's battery division, FinDreams Battery, is the world's third largest producer of electric vehicle batteries as of the first half of 2022. It specialises in lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which is marketed as the Blade battery.
