BYD Company


BYD Co Ltd is a Chinese manufacturer of automobiles, battery-powered bicycles, buses, forklifts, solar panels, rechargeable batteries, trucks, etc. with its corporate headquarters in Shenzhen. It has two major subsidiaries, BYD Automobile and BYD Electronic. It was founded in February 1995.
BYD has grown to become a major manufacturer of automobiles, battery-powered bicycles, buses, truck, forklift, solar panels, rechargeable batteries, and most notably mobile-phone batteries.

Name

The name BYD is an abbreviation of "Build Your Dreams".

History

Founded in February 1995 and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 31 July 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 of all types of rechargeable batteries. BYD topped the 2010 Bloomberg Businessweek Tech 100 list, a list of large, fast-growing tech companies. 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 was born. One of many Chinese automakers, in 2010 it was the sixth largest in terms of sales volume.
Seeking to utilize BYD battery production resources, it sells electric cars in addition to gasoline-powered models.
In late 2017, the premier of the government of Ontario, Canada announced that BYD would open a factory in the province to manufacture electric vehicles. Other sources indicated that the plant could open as early as 2018. BYD already had a small Canadian office in Windsor, Ontario at the time.

Rail Transit

Monorail

In 2016, BYD unveiled a working monorail prototype known as "Skyrail" and announced they will enter the global rail transit market. The first public Skyrail line opened in Yinchuan in 2018. A number of Chinese cities such as Guilin, Shantou, Guang'an, and Bengbu have ordered Skyrail lines in development. By 2019, a number of cities around the world had placed orders for Skyrail systems.

Rubber-tyred Tram

BYD also have a rubber-tyred tram product, known as "SkyShuttle". :zh:璧山胶轮有轨电车|Bishan Rubber-tyred Tram in Chongqing and :zh:西安高新区有轨电车|Xi'an High-tech Zone Tram in Xi'an will use the rubber-tyred tram.

Mobile phone components

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

Corporate affairs

The company has its corporate headquarters in the Pingshan District, Shenzhen, Guangdong province. Its North American headquarters are in Downtown Los Angeles, and BYD has sales offices in various countries.

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 eighth most innovative company in the world and that same year saw Fast Company ranking BYD as the 16th most innovative.
In 2017, PV Magazine has awarded BYD the top category of innovation on its newly launched battery storage system that advances progress in three categories: modularity, charging and discharging capacity, and efficiency.

Subsidiaries

The company has a number of subsidiaries, including BYD Auto. 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.
Production and sale of NiMH and NiCD batteries, hardware products, instruments and flexible
printed circuit boards are performed by this subsidiary.

Shenzhen BYD Microelectronics Co Ltd

Established in 2002, it is responsible for the design, production and sale of ICs for use in the mobile phone industry. It is registered as a sino-foreign joint venture.

Shenzhen BYD Daimler New Technology Company

A joint venture with German Daimler AG, Denza focuses on producing electric vehicles that eschew the BYD brand name.

BYD Electronic Co Ltd

An investment holding company incorporated in the Cayman Islands.

BYD Electronic Hungary Kft

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 12 February 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 Co Ltd, it manufactures material ion exchange membranes.

BYD Toyota EV Technology CO., LTD.

In April 2020, BYD and Toyota completed registration of the new company BYD Toyota EV Technology CO., LTD. to jointly Research and Develop battery electric vehicles for the Chinese market.

Production bases and facilities

BYD has many production bases, including three locations in Shenzhen, as well as sites in Huizhou, Shanxi, and Shanghai.
Auto production bases include an automobile assembly line in Xi'an, a K9 electric bus manufacturing plant in Dalian, a photovoltaic module Bloomberg New Energy Finance Tier 1 manufacturing plant in Beijing, an R&D center and nascent automobile assembly line in Shenzhen, and an R&D center in Shanghai.
US operations can be found in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, and San Francisco, California. BYD also acquired a site for a future North American headquarters in downtown Los Angeles, and has built and operates a manufacturing plant in Lancaster, California, near Los Angeles.
In 2019 a bus plant opened in Newmarket, Ontario to handle orders in Canada.
By 2020, BYD converted some of its equipment to produce 5 million N95 masks per day to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Legal disputes

On April 27, 2020 BYD hired attorney Charles Harder and filed a federal civil complaint in U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, against VICE Media alleging defamation for a story that was published on April 11, 2020.
BYD was unsuccessfully sued by Sony and Sanyo for patent infringement. The Taiwanese OEM Foxconn has also brought a suit against the company for the same reason.
In addition to patent litigation, Foxconn has sued BYD in Hong Kong and Illinois court in 2007, alleging that BYD poached 50 Foxconn employees and was complicit in the stealing of trade secrets, in order to set up a competing cell phone manufacturing operation. Court proceedings were brought before BYD Electronic was spun off by BYD later in 2007, delaying the public listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange by half a year.
Foxconn also opened proceedings in the district where BYD is headquartered, at the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court, which referred the case to the Supreme People’s Court, which in turn commissioned an appraisal by the Beijing JZSC Intellectual Property Forensic Center into files in BYD's possession which were alleged to belong to Foxconn. Eventually the Shenzhen court made the final judgment: BYD's files contained non-public information originating from Foxconn, which could bring economic benefits to the holders, thereby, BYD was found guilty of infringing Foxconn’s trade secrets.
Afterwards, Foxconn withdrew the civil proceedings against BYD in mainland China, and sought criminal prosecution instead. On March 20th 2008, the former Executive Director and Vice President of BYD was arrested. Then on March 24th and 31st 2008 two former employees of Foxconn were arrested and sentenced to 1 year and 4 months, and 4 years in prison respectively.
BYD issued a counterclaim to Foxconn in Hong Kong court, alleging defamation and bribery of Chinese officials as well as intimidation on Foxconn's part.

In the media