Company profile
- Industry
- Automotive
- Founded
- 1995
- Headquarters
- Shenzhen, China
- Ownership
- Publicly traded
Profiles are auto-generated and infrequently updated.
Decisions on record
3 verified Decision Records on BYD, and the casebook each one belongs to.
| Fork date | Decision type | The story | Casebook |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | The Pricing Lens | Read the story → | The Pricing Lens Casebook → |
| 2003 | Vertical-Integration Bet | Read the story → | Vertical-Integration Bet Casebook → |
| 2024 | The Pricing Lens | Read the story → | The Pricing Lens Casebook → |
Run one of these yourself
The decisions BYD faced, as kits you can run.
Each pack takes one of these decisions and gives you the framework, a deck for the room, a model that resolves to one number, and the sourced cases behind it. $499, one-time.
Growth & PortfolioThe Market EntryHow fast can this actually be done?See the pack →Business ModelThe Pricing Model ChangeWhat does changing how you charge cost before it starts paying?See the pack →Boundaries of the FirmThe Vertical IntegrationWhat must you own, and what can you safely buy?See the pack →
The analyses
The Market-Entry Gambit · Growth & Portfolio
Europe Slapped BYD With Tariffs. BYD's Sales Went Up Anyway.
The story is that Western tariffs are blocking BYD's subsidy-fueled export blitz. Both halves are wrong: subsidies explain only ~5% of BYD's cost edge, and its actual EU duty is 17%, not the headline 45% - and European volume kept climbing right through it.
8 min
The Market-Entry Gambit · Growth & Portfolio
BYD's 777.1 Billion Yuan Year Began in 1995 With 20 Employees and Human Hands
BYD reported 777.1 billion yuan in 2024 revenue, up 23%. The story isn't EVs or subsidies. It's a 30-year compounding bet that started in 1995 with CN¥2.5 million, 20 employees, and a deliberate plan to make Japanese battery automation obsolete with human hands.
8 min
The Cost Engine · Business Model
BYD Cut Prices 10–20% and Still Grew Profit 34%: The Product Is the Cost Structure
BYD slashed EV prices 10–20% in early 2024 and still grew net profit 34% to 40.25 billion yuan. That isn't a price war BYD is surviving — it's one it engineered, because its real product was never the car. It was the cost structure under it.
8 min
The Price Leader · Business Model
About 5% of BYD's $4,700 Cost Edge Is Subsidy. The Rest Was Built in the Factory
Everyone blames Chinese state cash for BYD's prices. But analysts pin its ~$4,700 per-car cost edge over Tesla mostly on vertical integration and scale - subsidies are only about 5% of it. Tariffs can't fix a problem made in the factory.
8 min
The Vertical Integrator · Boundaries of the Firm
The Battery Came First: BYD's Forward Integration Builds a Seal 15% Cheaper Than a Model 3
Everyone reads BYD as a carmaker that integrated backwards into cells. The truth runs the other way - it was a battery company that integrated forward into cars. That inversion is why its Seal costs ~15% less to build than a Shanghai Model 3, a gap harder to close than any software lead.
8 min