BYD Auto

BYD Auto Co., Ltd. is a Chinese automobile manufacturer based in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, and a wholly owned subsidiary of BYD Company. It was founded in 2003, following BYD Company's acquisition of Tsinchuan Automobile Company in 2002. Its principal activity is the design, development, manufacture and distribution of passenger cars and buses sold under the BYD brand. It also has a 50:50 joint venture with Daimler AG, Shenzhen BYD Daimler New Technology Co., Ltd., which develops and manufactures luxury electric cars sold under the Denza brand.

BYD Auto sold a total of 506,189 passenger cars in China in 2013, making it the tenth-largest selling brand and the largest selling Chinese brand. By selling a hodgepodge of models, BYD outsold all other manufacturers of plug-in electric vehicles, and moved around 60,000 units, ahead of Tesla Motors. With 50,500 units sold, the Tesla Model S was the best-selling electric vehicle that year, however.

History

BYD Co Ltd created the wholly owned subsidiary BYD Auto a year after its 2002 acquisition of the Tsinchuan Automobile Company, which may have been made solely to acquire the passenger car production license held by the purchased company. While the Chinese state is credited with development of an indigenous auto industry, BYD Auto may have been created in the absence of a State policy explicitly supporting independently owned automobile manufacturers.