page_title: BYD Auto
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: BYD Auto / History
caption_attribution_description: English: BYD US Headquarter in Los Angeles
context_page_description: BYD Auto Co., Ltd. is the automotive subsidiary of the Chinese multinational BYD Co Ltd, which is based in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. It was founded in January 2003, following BYD Company's acquisition of Tsinchuan Automobile Company in 2002. The company produces automobiles, buses, electric bicycles, forklifts, rechargeable batteries and trucks. The current model range of automobiles includes electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and petrol-engined vehicles.
  The Denza brand, a joint venture with Daimler AG, produces luxury electric cars.
context_section_description: BYD Co Ltd created the wholly owned subsidiary BYD Auto a year after its 2002 acquisition of the Norinco-owned Qinchuan Machinery Works, which may have been made solely to acquire the passenger car production license held by the purchased company. Qinchuan had been manufacturing cars since 1987, when the company began production of the 0.5 L (30.5 cu in) QJC7050 model. At the time of the acquisition, the QCJ7181 Flyer was in production, which from 2005 was rebadged to the "BYD Flyer."
  In 2008, a plugin hybrid version of the BYD F3 compact sedan was introduced. Total sales in 2009 were 448,400 vehicles. In the same year, BYD began the export of its cars to Africa, South America and the Middle East, where the cars competed on price, not quality.
  In 2012, the municipal government of Shenzhen purchased 500 BYD E6 cars for use as taxis. A total of 506,189 passenger cars were sold in China in 2013, making it the tenth-largest selling brand.
  In 2013, BYD was awarded The Top Crash Facility Award of the year 2013.
  In 2014, the BYD Qin plug-in hybrid had total sales of 14,747 (plus a relatively small number of sales in Latin America), In 2015, sales of the Qin increased to 31,898 and the Qin was the 88th highest selling sedan in China. In 2016, the BYD Tang plug-in hybrid SUV had 31,405 sales, the plug-in hybrid version of the Qin compact sedan had 21,868 sales and the BYD e6 electric compact MPV had 20,605 sales. By 2016, total sales of the Qin were 68,655 cars.
  In 2015, the company was planning to open factories in Brazil to produce electric cars and buses. In July 2015, exports to Russia were suspended, due to the war in Ukraine and the falling value of the Russian currency. BYD was the highest selling brand of highway legal light-duty plug-in electric vehicles (combined sales for plug-in hybrids and battery electric cars), with 61,772 passenger vehicles sold, mostly plug-in hybrids. BYD continued as the world's top selling plug-in car manufacturer in 2016 with over 100,000 units sold, up 64% from 2015. BYD sold more than 100,000 new energy passenger cars in China in 2016. The BYD Tang was the top selling plug-in car in China in 2016 with 31,405 units delivered.
  BYD achieves top rankings of 2015 J.D Power's Quality Study.
  In September 2016, the company became the third largest manufacturer of plug-in cars, with a total of 161,000 plug-in cars produced since 2008. Also in September 2016, the company introduced a range of electric sanitation truck models, to be used in Beijing.
  Since 2017, BYD has been negatively impacted by a reduction of subsidies that were granted by the Chinese government.
  In May 2020, BYD announced that it would start expanding in Europe, with Norway first. BYD's launch will consist of the Tang SUV and a range of commercial vehicles.
caption: BYD US Headquarter in Los Angeles
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