In China’s fast-paced automotive sector, few milestones resonate as deeply as BYD’s 30th anniversary.

On November 18, China’s largest new-energy vehicle maker marked this occasion with a grand celebration at its sprawling industrial park in the southern city of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province.

The event also coincided with a ceremony for the roll-out of the carmaker’s 10 millionth new-energy vehicle.

Beyond fanfare and applause, this feat made BYD the world’s first car manufacturer to hit the milestone of producing 10 million green vehicles.

Amid a global electric revolution in the automotive sector, BYD has not only caught up with competitors but overtaken them. For instance, it overtook Tesla in quarterly revenue for the first time between July and September 2023.

Beyond the headlines, what stands out to me is the company’s rapidly increasing pace in both production and delivery.

It took BYD 15 years to cross its first 5-million mark on August 9 last year. But the next 5 million? Achieved in a breathtakingly short 15 months.

Changing perceptions

Traditional business theory might attribute this spike in production efficiency to factors like economies of scale. However, there are more forces at play than just volume.

For any long-time observer of China’s automotive space, the shift in BYD’s industry status has been a typical rags-to-riches story, in the sense that the popular perception of BYD has undergone a total makeover.

Five years ago, I might have chuckled at the sight of a white BYD Qin sedan rolling down the street, its odd-looking rear and quirky tail lights challenging my aesthetics. “They should hire a better designer,” I recall remarking to my wife.

But three years ago, when BYD released the updated Song Plus and Tang DM-i hybrids with their sleek, posh designs, I was genuinely surprised by how far they had come.

Back then, skeptics still slammed models like the Tang, dismissing it as a mere conversion from a gasoline to an electric architecture, devoid of real innovation. Yet the car’s fuel efficiency, range and driving experience eventually silenced the detractors, making it one of BYD’s best-selling models.

The surprise didn’t stop there. Last year, BYD unveiled the Yangwang U8, an all-terrain sport utility vehicle that could turn in place and navigate water by tilting its wheels horizontally into propellers.

With these mind-boggling features, it became clear that BYD was no longer the same company that invited ridicule. Instead, it has evolved into a pioneer, breaking boundaries in ways few could have foreseen.

Savvy marketing

BYD’s meteoric rise isn’t just the result of its relentless pursuit of technological and manufacturing excellence; it’s also a testament to savvy marketing.

In today’s hyper-competitive automotive market, companies frequently slug it out for a bit of market share, and low blows are delivered every now and then to undercut competition.

In August 2023, BYD found itself embroiled in a fierce public relations battle with Great Wall Motors. Great Wall accused BYD’s Qin Plus DM-i and Song Plus DM-i, two plug-in hybrids, of using low-pressure fuel tanks instead of high-pressure tanks, which are mandated under national standards.

Great Wall filed a formal complaint with China’s market watchdog, claiming that these substitutes didn’t meet emission requirements. This spat quickly escalated from the boardroom to social media, where BYD’s loyal fans came to its rescue.

It’s unclear if BYD hired any shills online, but one gesture stood out and muted even the most ferocious opposition.

On August 9 this year, during a ceremony marking the rolling of BYD’s 5 millionth vehicle off the production line, Wang Chuanfu, the company’s founder and chief executive officer, became visibly emotional as he recounted, between fits of sobs, BYD’s two-decade journey in the automotive industry.

In a move that was widely hailed online, BYD aired a video titled “Together, We Are China’s Automobiles.” It traced the history of China’s automotive sector, paying tribute to a dozen domestic brands, ranging from state-run FAW and Dongfeng to up-and-comers NIO, XPeng and Li Auto.

Additionally, BYD also displayed 13 of its competitors’ vehicles at the entrance to the venue.

In China’s cutthroat market, such an act of generosity, whether genuine or intended as a public relations ploy, earned BYD considerable goodwill. It also made Great Wall’s fuel tank accusations appear small-minded and perfidious by comparison.

In another episode that won BYD widespread praise, a BYD driver heroically intervened to stop a man with an awl from further stabbing another downed driver on Hangzhou’s elevated highway in February this year.

The video of the incident went viral, and BYD strategically seized the moment, publicly rewarding the driver’s bravery.

Regardless of whether these actions were public relations stunts, they aligned with societal expectations of a responsible company. A BYD that understands the art of public opinion manipulation is a tougher opponent to take on than if it is adept at technology alone.

Wang clearly grasped this dynamic. At the November 18 ceremony, he announced the establishment of a 3-billion-yuan (US$414 million) charity fund aimed at supporting education.

BYD plans to set up scholarships at several universities and donate cutaway models of its cars to vocational schools, museums, and science centers. The goal is to ignite students’ interest in automotive technology and manufacturing, nurturing the next generation of engineers, Wang was quoted as saying in media reports.

Engineering prowess

BYD openly credits its success to what it calls the “engineer’s soul.” The philosophy proves so central to the company that it became the title of an officially commissioned biography.

“The engineer’s soul is BYD’s soul. Even if we lost all our assets — factories, patents, shares — if our engineers remain, we can stage a comeback at any time,” Wang declared at the ceremony.

As I have observed in my writings elsewhere, China’s enormous advancements in technology cannot be simplified to just supply chain advantages. Another critical pillar of its success is an immense pool of skilled engineers.

Historically, many innovations end up becoming a pie in the sky because they lack the engineering strength to turn a concept into a reliable product. In contrast, engineering capability is the bedrock of any manufacturing powerhouse.

BYD’s story underscores the importance of this “engineer dividend.” Without its army of engineers, who represent the bulk of its 900,000-strong workforce, BYD wouldn’t have been able to pivot so quickly at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.

In a modern-day parallel to Ford’s wartime production lines, BYD retooled its operations partially, in just 24 days, to manufacture mask-making machines, swiftly becoming the world’s largest producer of the surgical safeguards.

Some may think that switching from cars to masks was a simple step down the value chain, but the reality is far more complex. It required redesigning machinery, components, and manufacturing processes from scratch — down to the tiniest screws — and necessitating thousands of blueprints, modeling and prototype tests.

Every step had to be meticulously executed to ensure each mask met standardized specifications. Simple? Think again.

BYDism on the horizon?

This deep-rooted engineering culture and respect for technical talent reminds me of the global auto giants that went before: Toyota, Honda, Ford, BMW... you name it. All of them have cultivated a similar ethos of craftsmanship and innovation, putting engineers at the heart of their manufacturing empire.

These companies have deftly used public relations and advertising to project their value proposition, conveying strong brand identities to their customers. In the parlance of the modern investment community, this also helped create a cultural “moat” around their products.

As a leader in the new-energy vehicle industry, BYD is clearly trying to craft a similar narrative. Its commissioned biography, The Engineer’s Soul, is a testament to this effort. Another piece of evidence surfaced when Wang, the founder, dropped hints that BYD aspires to be studied as a case example for others.

This intent is clear with the release of the BYD Basic Guidelines, a book that Wang also unveiled at the November 18 event. He described it as both a summary of BYD’s past experiences and a guide for the future.

I haven’t had the chance to read it, but I believe it contains lessons and insights that BYD hopes to pass on to the broader industry.

Anyone familiar with business analysis knows that this practice extends beyond simple marketing, into the realms of organizational management and corporate culture.

Much like the evolution from Fordism to Toyotism, each era’s auto leaders have codified their management expertise and production know-how into methodologies that can be adapted to other sectors, each representing the pinnacle of manufacturing of their times.

BYD appears to be putting together its own formula for success. If it can succeed in distilling its experience into what might be called “BYDism,” we may witness the birth of the next Ford or Toyota. Any noise and criticism along the way is just the growing pain. Unpalatable? Yes, but that’s what makes a true colossus.

(The author, a former Shanghai Daily opinion writer, now works as a business analyst and communication strategist. He has no conflict of interests to declare.)