What does BYD mean?
We start with the most basic. What does BYD mean? “Build Your Dreams”, whose translation is “build your dreams”, is the phrase that gives rise to the name of the company.
Who and when was BYD founded?
Wang Chuan-Fu, the company’s founder and majority shareholder, founded BYD in 1995, in Shenzhen, China, according to information on its website. However, he started out as a manufacturer of rechargeable cell phone batteriesand in 2003 it was consolidated as the largest manufacturer cell phone batteries in the world, supplying companies such as LG, Motorola and Nokiaamong other.
In that same year, the company decided to take advantage of its experience in the manufacture of lithium batteries to venture into the electric car business, which is currently the most important, with the acquisition of Tsinchuan Automobile Company, a Chinese company focused on the sector. automotive.
BYD developed its own value chain for automobile manufacturingso it launched the development and production of its own batteries.
BYD car models
The company developed his first plug-in hybrid vehicle in 2008the BYD f3 MD, a sedan with a gasoline engine accompanied by a 75 KW electric motor and a battery that charged in nine hours with up to 150 kilometers of autonomy.
By 2011, BYD had already developed its first electric passenger bus. It was the eBus-12, which was 12 meters long and had a range of 250 kilometers in an urban cycle.
The following year, the first electric vehicle for private use for passengers came to light, named as Denza EVand developed in collaboration with Daimler. It had a range of 300 kilometers and reached a speed of 150 kilometers per hour, however, this joint venture it ended a couple of years later, thus BYD continuing its business independently.
Today, the Chinese brand has a portfolio of more than 10 models, between sedans, sports cars and SUVs. Two will arrive in the Mexican market: the midsize Sadan Han EV and the seven-passenger SUV Tang EV.
BYD, how are your batteries and motors?
Neva Zhang, commercial director of BYD Mexico, explained in an interview that the company has its own development of lithium iron phosphate batteries, which is the composition most used by Chinese manufacturers and by Volkswagen, unlike Tesla, which uses a formula with high concentrations of nickel.
Although lithium phosphate batteries typically have a lower drive range than nickel ones, they cost much less to produce.
BYD ensures that it has focused on improving the capacity of its batteries; Today, depending on the size, they offer between 506 km and 715 km of autonomy.
“We have good autonomy, so that makes us unique,” says Zhang.
BYD has also worked on increasing the power of its electric motors. This year, for example, it launched the 2022 Han EV in a 2WD variant and a 4WD variant. The first has an engine that produces 180 kW and 350 Nm of torque. On the old model, the 2WD variant generated 163 kW and 330 Nm of torque.
The 4WD variant of the 2022 Han EV has two motors that develop a combined power of 380 kW and a combined torque of 700 Nm. By comparison, the old Han EV 4WD variant had two motors providing 363 kW of system power and 680 Nm of system torque.
BYD prices
Although the brand has already announced that it will begin selling its models in Mexico next year, has not yet defined the prices to those who will offer their vehicles.
Despite the above, in Europe, the Han EV is marketed in 72,000 euros (1.4 million pesos)a value that could be similar for the Mexican market from the perspective of Francisco Medina, general director of Grupo Fame, one of the eight distributors it will have in Mexico.
“Today Mexico is so competitive that things are already worth the same almost everywhere in the world, so I think they will cost more or less the same,” he adds in an interview with Expansion.
