Claim: BYD Auto is an automobile company.

BYD Auto Co. , Ltd. is a Chinese automobile manufacturer based in Xi'an , Shaanxi Province , and a wholly owned subsidiary of BYD Company . It was founded in 2003 , following BYD Company 's acquisition of Tsinchuan Automobile Company in 2002 . Its principal activity is the design , development , manufacture and distribution of passenger cars and buses sold under the BYD brand . It also has a 50:50 joint venture with Daimler AG , Shenzhen BYD Daimler New Technology Co. , Ltd. , which develops and manufactures luxury electric cars sold under the Denza brand .   BYD Auto sold a total of 506,189 passenger cars in China in 2013 , making it the tenth-largest selling brand and the largest selling Chinese brand . In 2015 , BYD Auto was the best selling global electric vehicle brand , ahead of General Motors and Nissan . For a second year running , BYD was the world 's top selling plug-in electric car manufacturer with over 100,000 units delivered in 2016 , followed by Tesla , Inc. . In October 2016 , BYD Auto became the all-time second largest global plug-in car manufacturer after the Renault-Nissan Alliance .