Self-confidence and a sense of play
Zhengzhou is not the most charming of China’s many cities with populations in the millions. The sun is rarely seen, there is no city centre, and the sprawling metropolis spreads in all directions. About an hour’s drive outside this city of 10 million, another colossus is currently taking shape, destined to become the world’s largest car factory. It took just 17 months from the signing of the contract in April 2022, through the laying of the foundation stone, to the rollout of the first vehicle; naturally, the necessary infrastructure is also being built: a seven-track railway network, two new motorways, several residential estates with towering skyscrapers, a visitor centre featuring a 1.8-kilometre-long race track, off-road courses and all the amenities the Chinese now demand. There is even a pool in which the BYD Group’s flagship model, the Yangwang U8, can take a dip.
The site is said to cover an area equivalent to that of the city of Basel; at full capacity, it should be possible to build up to 1.5 million vehicles here per year in future. We are still a long way from that, however; it gives the impression that every second vehicle has to go back for rectification after passing the ‘OKLine’, the quality assurance stage. But BYD has currently imposed a diet on itself anyway; the warehouses were overflowing, which had tied up too much capital even by Chinese standards; the Chinese had intended to produce 5.5 million cars this year, but following the voluntary self-restriction, the figure has settled at just over 4.6 million. Target missed? Not necessarily; the stock market has taken the price correction very well, with BYD shares racing from record to record – although the growth rate in 2025 was no longer in double figures for the first time (just 7.1 per cent), the margin is approaching that figure. The new plant in Zhengzhou, which – as is customary at BYD – relies hardly at all on suppliers, is nonetheless a massive, and daring, gamble on a bright future.
BYD has only been in existence since 1996. Back then, chemist Wang Chuanfu founded a small factory near Shenzhen to manufacture rechargeable batteries. The working model was extraordinary: the manufacturing process was highly fragmented so that even unskilled or very young workers – no, not children – could carry out the individual steps. This enabled Chuanfu, thanks to low labour costs, to drive production costs even lower than those of industrial robots. BYD quickly grew to become probably the world’s largest battery manufacturer; today, the company is also a leader in the manufacture of smartphone and computer components. In 2003, Chuanfu then entered the car business, purchasing the production licence of the bankrupt Xian Qinhuan Automobile. However, BYD never wanted to build licensed products, as is usually the case in China; they wanted to do literally everything themselves. To this end, they dismantled a few purchased products down to the very last screw (and probably even that one) – and embarked on a never-ending learning process. Among other things, this meant that BYD never partnered with suppliers, but developed everything in-house: engines, gearboxes, even windscreen wipers. Today, it appears that the only items purchased are windscreens and tyres.
As a battery specialist, BYD became involved in electric mobility at an early stage – and is now one of the world’s largest producers, particularly in the commercial vehicle sector (including forklift trucks); the ‘ebus’ has also been operating in Europe for years (mostly at airports), and the Chinese can even supply tractor units. The Chinese were also definitely among the pioneers in fully electric passenger cars; the BYD e6 has been in use in China since 2010, primarily as a taxi – and indeed, by the end of 2025, the Chinese were by far the world’s largest electric car manufacturer, having delivered over 2.25 million BEVs. BYD has been officially present in Europe since 2021, initially in Norway, with Germany joining in the summer of 2022; there are currently monthly reports of new distribution partners around the world; Switzerland has been on board with its own organisation since 2025. The models currently on offer here are the Dolphin Surf, the Atto 2, the Seal, the Seal 6, the Seal U and the Sealion 7; there are currently eleven dealers.
From the outset, BYD has relied on state-of-the-art technology; the 800-volt architecture goes without saying; the company’s own batteries currently boast what is probably the highest energy density of any manufacturer. And now the Chinese are bringing a new charging technology to Europe as well: Flash Charging. You can think of this as a kind of power storage unit that actually charges the car’s battery at 1000 kW – 2 kilometres per second, 400 kilometres in five minutes – but is itself ‘fed’ with lower amounts of electricity. In this way, BYD circumvents the problem of high-amp fuse protection; any dealer, restaurant or car park operator can install this ‘Flash Charging’ – a 22 kW supply line is sufficient. In Switzerland, the importer is also in negotiations with motorway service station operators; the new system could be installed with relatively little effort. All future BYD models are set to be capable of utilising this fast-charging system.
One vehicle that certainly can is the Denza Z9 GT – the favourite child of BYD’s chief designer Wolfgang Egger. From summer 2026, this premium electric car will also be available in Switzerland, with four exclusive dealers handling sales and providing excellent customer service. Whether BYD’s luxury brand, Yangwang, will also make it to Switzerland remains to be seen. The massive Yangwang U8 SUV, which can also swim and is technologically light-years ahead of the well-known market leaders Range Rover and G-Class, would certainly be an intriguing proposition. Not necessarily when it comes to price, though, as the Chinese have long been very self-assured and consequently not particularly restrained in that regard. They can afford to be, though: the Yangwang U9 is widely recognised as the world’s fastest production car; recently, the 3,000 hp electric vehicle reached a top speed of 496.22 km/h. And on the infamous Nordschleife of the Nürburgring, it left all the electric vehicles from established sports car manufacturers trailing in its wake. BYD is more than capable of competing in the top league, and not just in terms of sales figures.
This is an article from our print edition radical#6.
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