Behind the rapid development of ‘giant’ BYD

Identifying technology is the core

From a battery manufacturing company with only 25 employees in 1995, in less than 30 years, BYD has grown to become the world’s leading new energy automobile empire with 650,000 employees, multi-industry operations including electronics. , automobile, new energy and railway traffic.

With fiscal year 2023 revenue exceeding the 80 billion USD mark, continuously doubling its growth for many years, BYD’s strong rise has surprised the whole world. The key to success revealed by the company’s leaders is to focus entirely on technology. Currently, there are up to 90,000 technicians recruited into the technical research and development department at 11 research centers across China. Right at the “headquarters” of Shenzhen (China), BYD attracted attention when displaying thousands of patent copyrights in the lobby, introducing to visitors the largest number of innovation certificates in the world, including Many techniques have not yet been released.

Used to be a battery manufacturing partner for major phone companies in the early 2000s, Nokia, Motorola… BYD quickly grasped market changes along with trends in the solar energy and electric vehicle industries. Whenever entering new fields, BYD prioritizes opening a series of research and testing centers with huge investment figures.

Mr. Liu Xue Liang, General Director of BYD Asia Pacific region, said that the picture of the technology industry at that time was unpredictable. In prosperous times, Nokia occupied 30-40% of the global market share, while BYD was the leading battery supplier. In 2007, when the iPhone appeared, Nokia did not consider it a competitor.

Realizing that it could not only produce batteries for traditional phones, BYD dreamed of opening a new direction with the help of investors, including billionaire Warren Buffet. “As of today, we realize that pursuing the continuous development of new technology is the future direction,” Mr. Liu Xue Liang emphasized.

On April 25, at the Beijing auto show, BYD announced a new 5th generation battery invention that helps cars run a continuous distance of 2,000km. The company affirms that it will continuously develop technology such as blade battery, e-Platform 3.0 platform, Cell To Body technology, DM-i (Dual-Mode intelligent) technology… to survive sustainably.

Focus on clean energy solutions

While still producing components for technology companies such as Xiaomi, Oppo, Huawei…, in 2007 BYD suddenly announced the production of electric buses. At that time, the level of environmental pollution in China was quite heavy. The country of billions of people owned many fuel sources from coal and minerals but lacked gasoline, having to import up to 70% to serve transportation needs.

At that time, one bus emitted as much as 33 cars, causing the Beijing government to introduce many policies to reduce emissions, including bus electrification. Possessing many advanced rechargeable battery technologies at that time, BYD easily entered the production of electric rechargeable buses, dominated the market and exported them to 70 countries and territories. In Japan, BYD electric bus market share accounts for 70%.

A BYD representative said the big milestone was when 16 years ago, the company officially entered the field of new energy cars. At that time, many people expressed confusion and doubt about BYD’s ambitions.

“They said that if we produce batteries, we don’t know how to produce cars. At that time, we felt like the iPhone manufacturers in 2007, no one would believe that electric cars would flood China,” Mr. Liu shared. shall.

When there were not many new energy car component suppliers and charging station investors, the company boldly produced its own, helping the process to be 85% closed. Currently, except for glass and tires that have to be imported from outside, BYD has produced almost all buses, cars, and trains.

At a rate of 20 seconds each, BYD has now surpassed Tesla to become the world’s No. 1 electric car manufacturer. In 2023, the company will reach the milestone of 7 million units globally.

Present in Shenzhen, the Vietnamese journalist group experienced the Skyshuttle, an aerial train produced by BYD. Not only impressive with its modern appearance, Skyshuttle also has many advanced features such as automatic charging, automatic driving, self-washing, soundproofing… Skyshuttle’s investment cost is only 1/10 of the investment cost. subway, each kilometer is about 10 million yuan.

What leaves us concerned is the disposal of the huge amount of battery after its end of use. According to BYD representatives, the company has set a goal of reducing carbon emissions to 0%, especially focusing on clean energy solutions, including electric urban transportation and renewable energy storage. create and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions with the goal of “Cool the earth by 1°C”, inspiring a future of sustainable development.

“In terms of environmental responsibility, we strictly comply with regulations in other countries with a common production process. When developing electric vehicles, we also recycle batteries and battery components with virtually no harm. pollution when there are not many heavy metals. BYD is ready to accompany Vietnam on the journey to reduce net emissions to zero by 2050,” Mr. Liu affirmed.

Before entering the Vietnamese market, BYD electric vehicles created a fever in Southeast Asia including Thailand with 40%, Malaysia with 44% market share… The company is confident that with research since 2016 it will be able to Advantages when entering the S-shaped country market.

Mr. Liu Xue Liang shared further: “We receive many questions about why BYD has not entered Vietnam for many years. For us, Vietnam is an important market, so we set the milestone as the final market in Southeast Asia. The relationship with Vietnam has actually existed for a long time. We have an electronic components factory in Phu Tho and also plan to open an electric vehicle factory in the next few years Here, we hope to cooperate with Vinfast and other businesses to promote the development of electric vehicles, because we know that relying solely on the strength of one business is very difficult.”