BYD Breakthrough in Electric Cars

BYD is becoming increasingly sinister. Last year, the Chinese overtook Tesla as the world's largest electric car manufacturer. And this week, the company announced a breakthrough in battery technology: With a new charging system, an electric car can be charged in just five minutes for a range of 400 kilometers.
It has now been revealed that the government in Beijing has been delaying the construction of a BYD factory in Mexico for two years. The company wants to invest $1 billion in the country, but the government fears that valuable technological knowledge could fall into the hands of the US, reports the British Financial Times. Is BYD really that far ahead of the competition? Or are there other reasons for China's reluctance in Mexico?

BYD to Replace Toyota
The Chinese government has big plans for the electric car company, explains automotive expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer (73) from the German CAR Institute to Blick. "China has chosen BYD as Toyota's successor." Toyota is the world's largest car company, with 10.8 million cars produced by 2024.

BYD has already made significant progress toward this goal: The company produced 4.3 million cars last year, 40 percent more than in 2023. 1.8 million of these were all-electric cars.
BYD is known for its quality and comparatively low prices. For example, the five-door electric city car Seagull is available in China for under 10,000 Swiss francs. "Chinese manufacturers are very good at reducing production costs through automation," says Dudenhöffer. BYD is also at the forefront of autonomous driving and aims to make the technology available in all models.

Lead in Batteries
But the Chinese have the greatest advantage in battery technology. "The Americans have little knowledge of batteries," says Dudenhöffer. "At BYD, however, batteries are the core competency." No wonder, since the company began in 1995 as a battery start-up developing batteries for mobile phones. The automotive division was only founded in 2003.

Today, 60 percent of batteries for electric cars come from China, as the trade magazine "Technik und Einkauf" reports. South Korea follows with 32 percent. The 14 largest companies in this sector all come from Asia. BYD is in second place behind the also Chinese company CATL.

Expansion Strategy in Europe
The fears of losses in China are therefore justified. Added to this is the global tariff war started by US President Donald Trump (78). Trump accused Mexico of providing a "back door" for Chinese companies to circumvent American tariffs. Mexico responded to US pressure with tariffs on Chinese industrial products and anti-dumping investigations into steel and aluminum products from China, as the FT reports.
Whether the factory in Mexico will ever be built under these conditions remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is that BYD's expansion strategy will continue, especially in Europe. Plants in Hungary and Turkey are under construction, and a third plant in Germany could follow. In Switzerland, however, the world's largest electric car manufacturer is still a dwarf. But that, too, could change. On March 12, Switzerland's first BYD store opened in Zurich.

Gabriel Knupfer
Business Editor