Written by Liang Zhihao

Being among the Fortune Global 500 is just a milestone for BYD, not the end goal.

The world-renowned financial magazine Fortune announced the 2022 Global 500 list on August 3. Unsurprisingly, BYD, a leading Chinese new energy vehicle manufacturer, was on the list. For BYD, which has been developing rapidly in recent years, being among the Global 500 is just a natural continuation of its success. More importantly, it is just a milestone for BYD, not the end goal.

Accumulation Leads to Achievement

Looking back to 1995, BYD was just one of the many new companies in Shenzhen at that time. However, in the past 27 years, it has grown into a industry giant that spans the four industries of automobiles, electronics, rail transit, and new energy, with 290,000 employees (data as of 2021).

The reason why BYD has achieved what other car companies have taken 50 or 100 years to achieve in a short period of time can be attributed to its insistence on the technology-driven route. Especially since 2020, BYD has successively released a variety of new technologies that are highly competitive in the industry, such as blade batteries, DM-i super hybrid, e platform 3.0, and CTB battery body integration technology. Accumulation leads to achievement. With the support of technology, BYD also has the confidence to become the first car company in the world to announce the discontinuation of gasoline vehicles. Of course, in addition to BYD’s solid technology and brand appeal, this confidence is also due to the trend of electrification in the automotive industry. Undoubtedly, in this wave of trends, BYD is clearly at the forefront.

It can be said that BYD’s current achievements are not accidental, but inevitable.

Sales Speak for Themselves

Shortly after Fortune magazine announced BYD as a Global 500 company, BYD also “rode the wave” and released its latest sales report for July. According to the data, BYD sold a total of 162,530 new cars in July, a year-on-year increase of 183.1%.

Don’t forget, currently, BYD is a thoroughly new energy vehicle enterprise. According to the China Passenger Car Association’s estimate, in July, the total wholesale volume of new energy vehicles in China was approximately 570,000 units, which means that BYD alone holds nearly 30% of the market share of China’s new energy vehicle market. Such an achievement is undoubtedly terrifying.

Regarding specific sub-sectors, BYD’s EV and DM series, which are currently its main products, have shown nearly equal sales performance in brand sales. In July, the former sold 81,223 units, and the latter sold 80,991 units. In other words, consumers’ acceptance of these two technologies is quite high, which is rare among other brands. This also reflects that BYD’s “two-legged walking” strategy of pure electric and plug-in hybrid is quite successful.

Recalling that when BYD announced its 1.5 million unit sales target for 2022, many people thought that they were too aggressive. Now, after seven months, BYD has already achieved a cumulative sales volume of 808,929 units, with a year-on-year increase of 166.01%. Coupled with the strong momentum of consecutive five-month sales exceeding 100,000 units, this year’s sales target of 1.5 million units for BYD seems to be easily achievable.

Chinese Power Moving towards the World

While BYD, rooted in China, has already become an industry giant in the field of new energy vehicles, as an ambitious versatile enterprise, they obviously will not limit themselves to one field. The reason why BYD was able to be included in the “Fortune 500” is definitely not just because of the outbreak in the Chinese market. Their achievements in overseas markets are also noteworthy.

For example, in the field of commercial vehicles, BYD’s pure electric commercial vehicles have already entered many developed countries in Europe and America. Currently, the global cumulative sales of BYD’s commercial vehicles has reached 85,000 units, among which pure electric passenger vehicles account for 70,000 units, spreading across more than 70 countries and regions around the world and over 400 different cities.

In the field of rail transit, BYD’s SkyRail has already two officially operating lines in Brazil, and it also has a demonstration line of unmanned driving in Chongqing, China. The high safety, high intelligence, high adaptability, high appearance, low energy consumption and low noise of BYD’s SkyRail have become the main competitive advantages.Besides, BYD is also a well-known provider of integrated solutions for new energy in the industry, possessing a variety of products such as batteries, solar panels, and energy storage. Apart from its capability of supplying batteries to other automakers, BYD’s solar and energy storage solutions have also gained a significant market share in many developed countries such as the United States, Germany, Switzerland, and Japan.

In addition, what many may not know is that, in addition to making cars and batteries, BYD’s business also covers multiple areas such as smartphones, laptops, intelligent products, automotive intelligent systems, and medical health. BYD Electronic (International) Co., Ltd., which has been listed independently in Hong Kong since 2007, is already a global leading provider of intelligent product solutions.

Such multiple industrial chain ecology and diversified development not only showcase the strength of BYD, but also demonstrate the power of Chinese brands to the world.

As stated at the beginning of the article, becoming a Fortune Global 500 company is only the beginning for BYD. As an enterprise that regards solving social problems as its brand orientation, BYD will undoubtedly continue to uphold its brand mission of “innovating with technology to meet people’s aspirations for a better life” in the future, allowing this Chinese force to continue to strengthen on a global scale!

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.