BYD Company
Encyclopedia
BYD Co Ltd is a Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 manufacturer of automobiles and rechargeable batteries based in Shenzhen
Shenzhen
Shenzhen is a major city in the south of Southern China's Guangdong Province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong. The area became China's first—and one of the most successful—Special Economic Zones...

, Guangdong province
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...

.

Hailed for its innovations, BYD has grown to become a major manufacturer of rechargeable batteries, most notably mobile phone batteries.

BYD topped the 2010 Bloomberg Businessweek Tech 100 list, a list of large, fast-growing tech companies.

History

Founded in the February of 1995 and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
Hong Kong Stock Exchange
The Hong Kong Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in Hong Kong. It is Asia's third largest stock exchange in terms of market capitalization behind the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange and fifth largest in the world...

 on July 31, 2002, BYD Co Ltd began as a rechargeable-battery factory competing in the Chinese market against Japanese imports.

Early growth

BYD grew quickly; within ten years capturing more than half the world's mobile-phone battery market and becoming the largest Chinese manufacturer (and in the top four worldwide) of all types of rechargeable batteries
Rechargeable battery
A rechargeable battery or storage battery is a group of one or more electrochemical cells. They are known as secondary cells because their electrochemical reactions are electrically reversible. Rechargeable batteries come in many different shapes and sizes, ranging anything from a button cell to...

. Replacing work done by machines with cheap, local labor lowered costs, and the company began expanding beyond batteries, adding automobiles and mobile phone components.

Automobiles

A year after the 2002 acquisition of Tsinchuan Automobile Co Ltd, BYD Automobile Co Ltd
BYD Auto
BYD Automobile Co Ltd is a Chinese automobile manufacturer based in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province...

 was born. One of many Chinese automakers, in 2010 it was the sixth largest in terms of sales volume..

Mobile phones

Mobile phone components were added to the BYD product line in the early 2000s. But this business, BYD Electronic, was spun off in 2007.

Name

The name BYD may be an acronym derived from either the company's Chinese name or from the phrase "build your dreams".

Innovation

The company has been recognized for innovation; for example it has developed technologies that allow mobile phone batteries to be made at room temperature, rather than in expensive, heated dry rooms.

In 2010, BusinessWeek ranked BYD the 8th most innovative company in the world, ahead of Ford; Volkswagen and BMW, and that same year saw Fast Company ranking BYD as the 16th most innovative.

Full hybrid automobiles

Seeking to utilize BYD battery production resources, in addition to gasoline-powered models BYD Automobile sells a full hybrid, the F3DM
BYD F3DM
The BYD F3DM is a plug-in hybrid compact sedan manufactured by BYD Auto with an all-electric range of and a hybrid electric powertrain that can extend the range an additional . The F3DM is the world's first mass produced plug-in hybrid automobile and went on sale to government agencies and...

, and hopes to sell all-electric vehicles in the future.

Subsidiaries

The company has a number of subsidiaries, including BYD Auto
BYD Auto
BYD Automobile Co Ltd is a Chinese automobile manufacturer based in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province...

. The following is an incomplete list.

BYD (H.K.) Co Ltd

Trading in NiCd, NiMH and Li-ion batteries and related products, it is a wholly owned subsidiary of BYD Co Ltd that in turn wholly owns Golden Link Worldwide Limited.
  • Golden Link Worldwide Ltd -An investment holding company incorporated
    Incorporation (business)
    Incorporation is the forming of a new corporation . The corporation may be a business, a non-profit organisation, sports club, or a government of a new city or town...

     in the British Virgin Islands. A wholly owned subsidiary of BYD (H.K.) Co Ltd, itself a wholly owned subsidiary of BYD Co Ltd, as of 2007 Golden Link held nearly 70% issued share capital of BYD Electronic (International) Co Ltd.

Shenzhen BYD Electronic Parts Co Ltd

Production and sale of NiMH and NiCD batteries, hardware products, instruments and flexible
printed circuit boards

Shenzhen BYD Microelectronics Co Ltd

Established in 2002, it is responsible for the design, production and sale of ICs
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...

 for use in the mobile phone industry. It is registered as a Sino-foreign joint venture.

Shenzhen BYD Daimler New Technology Company

On May 27, 2010, BYD and Daimler AG signed an agreement on establishing a 50/50 joint venture developing electric cars in China.

BYD Electronic Co Ltd

An investment holding company incorporated
Incorporation (business)
Incorporation is the forming of a new corporation . The corporation may be a business, a non-profit organisation, sports club, or a government of a new city or town...

 in the Cayman Islands

BYD Electronic Hungary Kft

(“Hungary Electronic”) Originally Mirae Hungary Industrial Manufacturer Ltd, and responsible for the manufacture and sale of mobile handset components, BYD Electronic Hungary Kft was purchased from Mirae Industry Co Ltd on February 12, 2008. Prior to the purchase, it manufactured handset housings for Nokia.

Foshan Jinhui Hi-tech Optoelectronic Material Co Ltd

A joint venture with Foshan Plastic Group Co Ltd and BYD (H.K) Co Ltd, it manufactures material ion exchange membranes.

Production bases and facilities

BYD has many production bases, including three locations in Shenzhen
Shenzhen
Shenzhen is a major city in the south of Southern China's Guangdong Province, situated immediately north of Hong Kong. The area became China's first—and one of the most successful—Special Economic Zones...

, (one of which is in Kuichong, Longgang District, Shenzhen), as well as sites in Huizhou
Huizhou
Huizhou , historically known as Waichow, is a city located in central Guangdong province of the People's Republic of China. Part of the Pearl River Delta, Huizhou borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou to the west, Shaoguan to the north, Heyuan to the northeast, Shanwei to the east, Shenzhen...

, Shanxi
Shanxi
' is a province in Northern China. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋" , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....

 and Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

.

Auto production bases include an automobile assembly line in Xi'an
Xi'an
Xi'an is the capital of the Shaanxi province, and a sub-provincial city in the People's Republic of China. One of the oldest cities in China, with more than 3,100 years of history, the city was known as Chang'an before the Ming Dynasty...

, a module manufacturing plant in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

, an R&D center and nascent automobile assembly line in Shenzhen and an R&D center in Shanghai.

US operations are limited to sales and marketing and can be found in Elk Grove Village, Illinois
Elk Grove Village, Illinois
Elk Grove Village is a municipality located in northeastern Illinois adjacent to O'Hare International Airport and the City of Chicago. Elk Grove Village encompasses in land area with located in Cook County and located in DuPage County, Illinois. The population was 32,745 at the 2010 census...

 and San Francisco, California. BYD has also acquired a site for a future North American headquarters in downtown Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

.

Legal disputes

BYD was unsuccessfully sued by Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

 and Sanyo
Sanyo
is a major electronics company and member of the Fortune 500 whose headquarters is located in Moriguchi, Osaka prefecture, Japan. Sanyo targets the middle of the market and has over 230 Subsidiaries and Affiliates....

 for patent infringement. Foxconn
Foxconn
The Foxconn Technology Group is a multinational business group anchored by the Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. , a Taiwan-registered corporation headquartered in Tucheng, Taiwan...

 has also brought a suit against the company for the same reason.

In the media

  • In September 2008, MidAmerican Energy Holdings, a subsidiary
    Subsidiary
    A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...

     of Warren Buffett
    Warren Buffett
    Warren Edward Buffett is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is widely regarded as one of the most successful investors in the world. Often introduced as "legendary investor, Warren Buffett", he is the primary shareholder, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is...

    's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., invested about US$230 million for a 10% (or 9.89%) share of BYD, @ HK$8/share.

External links


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