BYD Auto (
simplified ChineseSimplified Chinese Characters are one of two standard sets of Chinese characters of the contemporary Chinese written language. They are based mostly on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms that were used in printed text for over a thousand...
: 比亚迪汽车;
PinyinPinyin , or more formally Hanyu Pinyin , is currently the most commonly used romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu means the Chinese language, and pinyin means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound"...
: Bǐyàdí Qìchē) is a Chinese automobile manufacturer based in
ShenzhenShenzhen is a city of sub-provincial administrative status in southern China's Guangdong province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong...
, Guangdong Province,
ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
. The firm was founded in 2003 and it is a part of the rechargeable battery maker/IT company,
BYD Co LtdBYD Company Limited is a publicly-owned, Chinese manufacturer of automobiles, rechargeable batteries and mobile-phone components, based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.- History :...
.
In December 2008, BYD Auto began selling the world's first mass-produced plug-in hybrid vehicle, and plans to mass produce affordable electric vehicles in the near future.
BYD Co LtdBYD Company Limited is a publicly-owned, Chinese manufacturer of automobiles, rechargeable batteries and mobile-phone components, based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.- History :...
created the wholly-owned subsidiary
BYD Auto a year after its 2002 acquisition of the
Tsinchuan Automobile Company.
BYD produces nearly all of the components used in its vehicles, from the
air conditioningAn air conditioner is a home appliance, system, or mechanism designed to dehumidify and extract heat from an area, or provide heat to an area. The cooling is done using a simple refrigeration cycle...
units to the
enginesThe internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine the expansion of the high temperature and pressure gases, which are produced by the combustion, directly applies force to a movable...
.
BYD Auto (
simplified ChineseSimplified Chinese Characters are one of two standard sets of Chinese characters of the contemporary Chinese written language. They are based mostly on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms that were used in printed text for over a thousand...
: 比亚迪汽车;
PinyinPinyin , or more formally Hanyu Pinyin , is currently the most commonly used romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu means the Chinese language, and pinyin means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound"...
: Bǐyàdí Qìchē) is a Chinese automobile manufacturer based in
ShenzhenShenzhen is a city of sub-provincial administrative status in southern China's Guangdong province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong...
, Guangdong Province,
ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
. The firm was founded in 2003 and it is a part of the rechargeable battery maker/IT company,
BYD Co LtdBYD Company Limited is a publicly-owned, Chinese manufacturer of automobiles, rechargeable batteries and mobile-phone components, based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.- History :...
.
In December 2008, BYD Auto began selling the world's first mass-produced plug-in hybrid vehicle, and plans to mass produce affordable electric vehicles in the near future.
History
BYD Co LtdBYD Company Limited is a publicly-owned, Chinese manufacturer of automobiles, rechargeable batteries and mobile-phone components, based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.- History :...
created the wholly-owned subsidiary
BYD Auto a year after its 2002 acquisition of the
Tsinchuan Automobile Company.
BYD produces nearly all of the components used in its vehicles, from the
air conditioningAn air conditioner is a home appliance, system, or mechanism designed to dehumidify and extract heat from an area, or provide heat to an area. The cooling is done using a simple refrigeration cycle...
units to the
enginesThe internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine the expansion of the high temperature and pressure gases, which are produced by the combustion, directly applies force to a movable...
. This is in contrast to many American, Japanese and European auto manufacturers, who normally outsource a great deal of the components used in their vehicles, performing final assembly at their own factories.
In 2006 BYD began to export its vehicles to foreign countries and as of 2009 BYD exports its cars to
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
,
South AmericaSouth America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere...
and the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. The company is planning to enter the
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an and
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
i markets in 2010, and hopes to sell vehicles in the United States by 2011.
In 2008,
Berkshire HathawayBerkshire Hathaway is a conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S., that oversees and manages a number of subsidiary companies. The Company averaged an annual growth in book value of 20.3% to its shareholders for the last 44 years, while employing large amounts of...
, the firm headed by legendary investor
Warren BuffettWarren Edward Buffett is a U.S. investor, businessman, and philanthropist. He is one of the most successful investors in history, the primary shareholder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, and in 2008 was ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of approximately...
, bought 10% of BYD Auto's parent company,
BYD CompanyBYD Company Limited is a publicly-owned, Chinese manufacturer of automobiles, rechargeable batteries and mobile-phone components, based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.- History :...
for $230 million.
Production bases
Production bases include an automobile assembly base in
Xi'anXi'an , is the capital of the Shaanxi province in the People's Republic of China and a sub-provincial city...
, a module manufacturing plant in
BeijingBeijing is a metropolis in northern China and the capital of the People's Republic of China...
, a R&D center and nascent automobile assembly base in
ShenzhenShenzhen is a city of sub-provincial administrative status in southern China's Guangdong province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong...
and a R&D center in
ShanghaiShanghai is the largest city in China, and one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, with over 20 million people. Located on China's central eastern coast at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the city is administered as a municipality of the People's Republic of China with province-level...
.
In the media
- BYD Auto was featured on the cover of Fortune magazine on April 13, 2009.
- CNN
Cable News Network, almost always referred to by its initialism CNN, is an U.S. cable news network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first network to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television network in the United States...
segment TalkAsiaTalkAsia is a CNN International interview show hosted by Anjali Rao. Rao interviews various people who, in some way, affect Asian culture, politics, and humanitarian issues. The show features many entrepreneurs and big business tycoons as well as fashion and popular icons...
interviewed chairman Wang ChuanfuWang Chuanfu is a Chinese chemist and businessman. In 1995, at the age of 29, he founded the BYD Company, currently the world's biggest mobile phone batteries manufacturer. In early 2009, he was reportedly worth US$1.3 billion, placing him #559 on Forbes magazine's list of billionaires...
on April 22, 2009, and became the first members of the media to test drive BYD's electric car.
- BYD Co Ltd
BYD Company Limited is a publicly-owned, Chinese manufacturer of automobiles, rechargeable batteries and mobile-phone components, based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.- History :...
, the parent company of BYD Auto, was mentioned in the 2008 book GlobalityGlobality is the end-state of globalization – a hypothetical condition in which the process of globalization is complete or nearly so, barriers have fallen, and "a new global reality" is emerging....
, written by the Boston Consulting GroupThe Boston Consulting Group is a global management consulting firm, founded by Bruce Henderson in 1963. It has 66 offices in 38 countries, and its current CEO is Hans-Paul Bürkner...
.
Look-a-like models
Many Chinese auto manufacturers' cars ape those of foreign automakers and some BYD cars seem to
copyThe term Chinese copy is used to describe a reverse-engineered or otherwise recreated copy of something which bears sufficiently close resemblance to the original item to discount the possibility of it being accidental or the result of similar but unconnected work...
those of many brands including
LexusLexus is the luxury vehicle division of Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation. First introduced in 1989 in the United States, where Lexus has ranked as the highest-selling maker of luxury cars, as of 2006 Lexus vehicles are sold in 68 countries and territories worldwide...
, Toyota,
Hondais a Japanese multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles. Honda is the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume. Honda surpassed Nissan in 2001 to become...
, Mercedes Benz, and
PorschePorsche SE is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury high performance automobiles, which is majority-owned by the Piëch and Porsche families. Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG , often shortened to Porsche AG, is responsible and manufacturer of the Porsche automobile line...
. For example, the BYD F8 convertible bears great similarity to the Mercedes CLK from the front, and the Renault Megane CC or third generation
Chrysler Sebring convertibleThe Chrysler Sebring convertible is a mid-size convertible manufactured by Chrysler, as a replacement for the Chrysler LeBaron and now in its third generation — currently available as both a retractable hardtop and softop....
from the rear.
It is also interesting to note that BYD Auto's previous logo, shown
here, bore a striking resemblance to that of
BMW's, is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company. Founded in 1916, it is known for its performance and luxury vehicles. It owns and produces the MINI brand, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.-Company history:...
.
See also
- BYD Co Ltd
BYD Company Limited is a publicly-owned, Chinese manufacturer of automobiles, rechargeable batteries and mobile-phone components, based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province.- History :...
- BYD Flyer
The BYD Flyer was a city car produced by BYD Auto, a Chinese automobile manufacturer in Shenzhen.*BYD Flyer I - Production started in 2003.*BYD Flyer II - is sold in Russia and Ukraine.Engines:*HH368QA1 - 796 cc - - 4L/100km...
(Discontinued)
- BYD F0
The BYD F0, formerly known as BYD F1, is a small Supermini made by Chinese automaker BYD Auto. It is marketed as "Just Cool". The car, priced at about $6,700 USD, reportedly gets 56 miles per gallon. The car benefited from the 2008 Chinese stimulus plan....
- BYD F3DM
The BYD F3DM is the world's first mass produced plug-in hybrid compact sedan which went on sale to government agencies and corporations on December 15, 2008 in China. The F3DM is slated to go on sale in Europe during 2010 and in the USA during 2011...
- BYD e6
BYD e6 is an all-electric crossover car in production by BYD Auto. BYD claims its all-electric range will reach 400 km per charge.-Specifications:* Electric power consumption: less than 18kWh/62 miles...
(A All-electricThe battery electric vehicle, or BEV, is a type of electric vehicle that uses chemical energy stored in rechargeable battery packs....
MPVA minivan, multi-purpose vehicle , people-carrier, people-mover or multi-utility vehicle is a type of automobile similar in shape to a van that is designed for personal use...
)
- BYD F6DM
The BYD F6DM is a planned plug-in hybrid mid-size sedan announced for production in the second half of 2008. The fully electric version is named F6e...
- Chinese automakers
External links