According to a recent post citing He Zhiqi, BYD executive vice president, the NEV (new energy vehicle) automaker added production capacity of nearly 200,000 vehicles per month from August to October of this year. The capacity addition of nearly 2.4 million vehicles over the course of a year is greater than Tesla’s total annualized global production (469,796 units in the 3rd quarter multiplied by four equals 1,879,184 units). Note that Tesla’s production capacity, without adding new lines, appears to be about 3 million — but consumer demand is apparently lacking.
In addition, BYD added nearly 200,000 employees, significantly more than Tesla’s total employee count, especially following the layoffs earlier this year.
The BYD executive said that this level of growth is without precedent, which seems like a fair assessment. Despite the growth, BYD is now reportedly still running at capacity and will need to expand more to meet demand. BYD currently has factories under construction in countries like Hungary and Brazil, with several other factories in various stages of planning and construction around the world.
China is really flexing their economies of scale here.
These are the high quality goods the Chinese were dreaming about the world seeking.