BYD plans $14 billion investment to build smart EV technologies and rival Tesla

BYD, a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker, has announced a 100 billion yuan ($14 billion) investment plan to develop smart car technology and increase competition against rival Tesla.

Founder and CEO Wang Chuanfu said on Tuesday that the new smart car system is a combination of different technologies that his company has developed for both vehicle intelligence and electrification.

These technologies also include cloud-based AI, 5G access, autonomous driving, and better cockpit features.

Wang further revealed that the first half of this investment will focus on EVs and the second half will make technologies related to AI and smart car experience.

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BYD Han

Last year, BYD surpassed Tesla as the largest EV maker in the world in terms of sales but the company still lacks in user experience compared to the U.S. EV giant.

Therefore, the Shenzhen-headquartered firm is now looking to increase its edge in smart car technologies.

The event in Shenzen, Wang said BYD has over 90,000 employees and 4,000 of those are working on smart driving systems. Of those, 1,000 focus on algorithm and hardware engineering, and 3,000 drive software applications.

The $14 billion investment plan to redesign its smart car experience could do the trick for BYD to stay ahead of all domestic car makers and may be able to compete against Tesla as well.

(source – SCMP)