Elon Musk is very much in awe of this Chinese character for letting Tesla electric cars ‘smell’ throughout 2022

In January 2023, Chinese electric car billionaire Wang Chuanfu gave a speech on the business situation of BYD car company. China’s Wangyi newspaper compared: ‘Wang Chuanfu’s speech was very slow, but BYD last year accelerated impressively!’

Tesla is being far behind by BYD

On January 2, 2023, BYD announced that its 2022 cumulative sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) were 1,863,500 units, an increase of 208.64% year-on-year. Meanwhile, Tesla’s corresponding figure is only 1.31 million units, far behind BYD by nearly 500,000 units.

NEV is a widely used term in China, short for ‘New Energy Vehicle’ or ‘new energy vehicle’, including vehicle groups such as HEV, BEV, PHEV, …

It is worth noting that it took initially 13 years for BYD’s new energy vehicle sales to grow from 1 to 1 million. Then it only took 1 year to go from 1 million to 2 million. It can be seen that BYD has overcome the initial difficult period and is starting to gain momentum. Vuong Truyen Phuc once said: ‘Running BYD is like walking on a monkey bridge, you must definitely advance to reach the destination’.

With sales skyrocketing, BYD CEO and Chairman Vuong Truyen Phuc also became the owner of a trillion-dollar company.

Billionaire Vuong Truyen Phuc, who is known as the ‘soul of BYD’

Tesla also had to buy batteries from BYD

In 2022, BYD’s battery business continued to expand. Due to their increased lifespan and obvious cost advantage, BYD batteries are being put on the ‘candidate’ list by many car manufacturers. In fact, Tesla, Weilai and Xiaomi have become BYD partners.

According to German site Teslamag.de, BYD’s LFP batteries are currently being rolled into the Model Y production line at Tesla’s factory in Berlin. Notably, before BYD, CATL was Tesla’s only Chinese battery supplier.

Competition between the two sides will become more and more intense

11 years ago, Vuong Truyen Phuc ‘boldly’ declared: ‘ BYD can make a Tesla car in a few minutes ‘. Elon Musk simply said BYD is not a rival to Tesla.

But by 2022, Steve Westly, a former Tesla board member, has said that Tesla’s only rival is Chinese electric car giant BYD. Elon Musk’s own attitude also changed: ‘ Chinese manufacturers like BYD are very competitive .’

Looking at BYD’s recent steps, anyone can see that the intensity of competition between the two giants Vuong Truyen Phuc and Elon Musk will increase.

Tesla’s recent ‘disturbing’ advertisement for nearly 10,000 yuan (nearly 34 million VND) in China

In the Chinese market, on January 2, 2023, Tesla launched many New Year offers. If payment is completed and delivered before March 2023, car buyers will enjoy a transportation incentive of 6,000 yuan (about 20 million VND), plus a car insurance allowance of 4,000 yuan (nearly 14 million VND). The automotive community in many places commented that ‘this is actually a disguised discount’.

Meanwhile, BYD announced that from January 1, 2023, the price of some models will increase from 2,000 to 6,000 yuan (about 7 million to 20 million VND). Customers who have made a deposit and signed a contract before will not be affected by this adjustment.

What strategy does CEO surnamed Vuong have that Elon Musk should be afraid of?

Expand production

During the financial report meeting in September 2022, Vuong Truyen Phuc set a higher target for 2023: annual sales should be 4 million vehicles.

To meet the increasing number of orders, BYD has actively expanded production. According to Chinese media statistics, BYD’s monthly production capacity in 2022 has increased from more than 90,000 vehicles in January to 230,000 vehicles in December. With the consecutive operation of factories in Jiangxi, An Huy, Xi’an, Jinan and other provinces, BYD’s production capacity is forecast to increase to 3.6 million vehicles by 2023.

Step into the high-end segment

Director Vuong’s vision is to take BYD out of the “cheap car” image to enter the high-end segment. At the beginning of November 2022, Yangwang (which in Chinese means ‘to look up’) positioned as BYD’s million dollar luxury brand was officially launched. The first product called Yangwang will be launched in the first quarter of 2023.

BYD’s latest Yangwang U8 model in January 2023

In addition, BYD also plans to launch a personalization brand by 2023. In the future, BYD will own about five major brands: Dynasty, Ocean, Tengshi, Wangyang and a personal brand. to implement the multi-brand strategy and develop high quality.

Encroaching on foreign markets

Vuong Truyen Phuc divides its overseas market into 4 main regions: Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa. Each region will have its own chief executive officer, and the CEO surnamed Vuong will delegate decision-making to them to increase flexibility.

BYD is adopting the same model as those of Tesla and Volkswagen, and is building factories abroad directly. In September 2022, BYD signed a land purchase agreement with Thailand’s WHA Group and will soon build its first electric vehicle factory in Southeast Asia. In October 2022, BYD considers building a second factory in India, hoping to capture 40% market share in this market by 2023.

Buy your own ship to transport yourself

To meet the transportation demand due to the rapid expansion of the overseas market, Vuong Truyen Phuc is even preparing to purchase the shipping vessel himself. It is reported that BYD will order up to 8 liquefied gas dual fuel ships of 7,700 CEU. Each unit is priced at $84 million and is expected to ship after 2025. However, BYD has not yet responded to this information.

A model of BYD Tang EV exported to Norway

In May 2021, the first batch of 100 Tang EVs arrived in Norway, marking BYD’s first step abroad. As of early August 2022, BYD passenger cars have penetrated 32 countries and regions. BYD plans to enter the North American market in 2023.

It is predicted that by 2023, BYD’s export sales are expected to reach between 300,000 and 500,000 units.

By: Wangyi