Technology magnate Elon Musk has turned the automotive industry upside down with his electric car brand Tesla. But a new rival is causing problems for the American manufacturer. BYD from China claims to have already overtaken Tesla in terms of turnover, produces its own batteries and is bringing its affordable electric cars to more and more Western markets. BYD recently even won a tender for Austrian government vehicles. Has Tesla met its match in the Far East challenger? Krone+ analyzed.
BYD founder Wang Chuanfu was born in 1966 in an eastern Chinese province to poor farmers and lost his parents at a young age. Thanks to the support of his seven siblings and a scholarship, he was able to obtain a degree in chemistry and battery technology in Beijing. After working for a few years at a state research institute, he founded the battery manufacturer BYD in the southern Chinese special administrative region of Shenzhen in the mid-1990s, which took over a loss-making state-owned car company in 2003. Today he is worth $14.8 billion, ranks 129th in Bloomberg’s billionaire rankings, and BYD is the largest electric car manufacturer, ahead of Tesla, with three million vehicles sold. But the matter is not (yet) as clear-cut as it seems.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
