BYD, which stands for «Build Your Dreams,» is the largest automobile manufacturer in China. As of 2025, it’s also the largest EV manufacturer in the world, trumping Tesla in EV sales, with 2.26 million produced compared to Tesla’s 1.63 million. And the brand Elon Musk once laughed at has its hands in many more pies than just the EV space, too.
The company was founded in 1995 with 20 employees as a manufacturer of nickel-cadmium batteries. As of January 2025, that number has apparently grown to nearly 1 million employees, with 11 research institutes and about 110,000 engineers. In addition to its automotive operations, the company is also a major player in electronics, new energy, and rail transit.
BYD has a huge presence in the electronics field, with its BYD Electronic (International) Co., Ltd. having been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2007. It provides a range of services to companies like Xiaomi, Lenovo, Huawei, iRobot and others, including materials development, design services, precision manufacturing, testing and certification, and supply chain management. It also produces conventional laptops, smartphones, and tablet PCs, as well as intelligent products like gaming hardware, drones, AI servers, household energy storage systems, 3D printers, medical devices, and robots.
The company claims to be the only source of product design and manufacturing services that can also provide structural parts made of plastic, ceramics, glass, or metal. BYD even offers its customers one-stop shopping, acting as a contract manufacturer that offers turnkey solutions.
