BYD, the Chinese car manufacturer competing with Tesla to be the world’s leader in electric vehicles, has experienced a meteoric rise. Its ascent is of the kind that only seems possible in the technological fairytales so beloved by the leaders of the People’s Republic, echoing the country’s transition from its humble origins in the Mao Zedong hard times to its global conquest in the 21st century.

The firm, which was founded in 1994, was originally dedicated to manufacturing rechargeable batteries for electronic devices. At the height of the mobile phone boom, it signed major deals with giants like Nokia. BYD didn’t enter the car business until 2003, when it acquired a struggling Chinese state-owned automobile company that had dabbled in the production of missiles and other defense components. In 2005, it manufactured its first car. In 2008, it decided to focus on electric vehicles. That same year, it received a boost from Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway fund, which invested $230 million. Berkshire has gradually sold those shares, completing its exit this year with a net profit estimated at around $7 billion.

Doubts about the company’s profitability contributed to Buffet’s departure. In the second quarter of 2025, BYD recorded a drop in profits for the first time in three and a half years. Its sales fell in September for the first time since 2024. The corporation’s competition in Asia, where it delivers 80% of its orders, has become extreme. Chinese authorities have called for an end to a fierce price war that has put pressure on profit margins across the sector. Consumption has slowed, and BYD has lowered its sales target for this year from 5.5 million to 4.6 million units.

Despite these clouds, the company is still the industry leader in China. It is also number one in sales of electric, hybrid and hydrogen models in the country (where new energy models account for 50% of retail purchases), as well as worldwide. It sold 4.27 million units in 2024, 41% more than in 2023. Of these, 1.76 million were pure electric, slightly below Tesla, which it surpassed in 2025 according to trade publications. It is relying heavily on exports for its future strategy — this year, the firm aims to sell one million units abroad.

Listed on the Hong Kong and Shenzhen stock exchanges, BYD is China’s ninth-most valuable private company, and was worth around $110 billion in 2024, according to the Hurun list, a Forbes-style rundown that focuses on China. In 2024, the company posted revenues of $109 billion, a year-over-year increase of 29% and a net profit of $5.6 billion, up 34%.

Its penetration in the European market has accelerated, even after the new EU tariffs. In August, its sales in Europe grew by 201.3%, up to 1.3% of the market according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. In Spain, it is one of the brands that has propelled Chinese cars to second place in terms of sales volume, behind only German manufacturers, according to the Spanish Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers.

A handful of problems

But this expansion has not been free of challenges. In Brazil, BYD has been accused of building a factory with Chinese workers laboring in conditions of semi-slavery (the company denies the allegations) and has had to pause plans to build a factory in Mexico due to growing geopolitical tensions.

The firm is also the result of a carefully planned government initiative. At the entrance to one of its factories in Xi’an, there is an inscription by Chinese President Xi Jinping: “Developing new energy vehicles is the only way for China to transform itself from a major automobile country into an automobile powerhouse.”

A year ago, EL PAÍS paid a visit to this plant, which has the capacity to produce 3,000 vehicles a day and is an orderly chaos of buzzing, squeaking production lines and mechanical arms that move car skeletons in the process of taking shape. A tour guide pointed out that part of the firm’s secret is that it carries out 100% of the research and development for three key components — the electric motor, electric control and the battery — in-house.

60,000 people work in the city-factory and nearly 70% of them live on the premises, which is typical in China. They can be seen getting on and off an elevated train (also made by BYD) that travels the perimeter of the complex.

The company, which started out with 20 employees, today employs 885,400. It operates factories in Hungary, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Brazil, in addition to China, with others planned in Turkey and Cambodia. This week, Reuters wrote that Spain is its top choice for the company’s new European factory. Experts highlight its strategy of investing in its own technology and comprehensive control of the value chain, from lithium mines to final transportation via its own fleet of ships (it currently has seven).

BYD’s strategy also determines its choice of battery: it mainly uses lithium models. “And since China’s lithium mines account for 60% of the world’s total, they do not face the risk of supply being cut off,” says Yin Xiaopeng of the School of International Trade and Economics (UIBE) in Beijing. They also design their own chips, another safeguard against geopolitical turbulence and trade restrictions.

“Competition in the Chinese market is ferocious and at the global level, the true battlefield of electric vehicles is technology,” adds Yin, who says BYD stands out due to its innovation. The company’s battery models are well-regarded, and it is the second biggest worldwide producer in the sector, behind its fellow Chinese firm CATL. In addition to using its own batteries in cars, it supplies other automobile companies — including Tesla, its biggest rival.

Founder and CEO of BYD Wang Chuanfu is a man with a serious and anodyne countenance, the antithesis of the eccentric Elon Musk, who in 2011 let loose a cackle when asked about the competition with BYD. “Have you seen their cars?,” he joked to a Bloomberg reporter. Wang is a member of the Communist Party, has one of the biggest fortunes in China (in 2009 he was at the top of the list of the country’s wealthiest) and his life serves as a tidy reflection of the changes that have taken place in the country over the last six decades.

Wang was born in 1966 to a family of farmers in Anhui province, and into hunger. He lost his parents when he was a teenager, but managed to go to college with the support of the eldest of his seven siblings, who was tasked with taking care of the family. Years later, that brother would be one of the key pieces of the BYD empire, becoming its vice-president and head of logistics.

After graduating with a degree in physics and metallurgical chemistry, in 1987 Wang was admitted to a post-graduate program at the Nonferrous Metals Research Institute in Beijing. He studied batteries and excelled as a researcher. In 1993, when the institution established a battery company in Shenzhen, he was entrusted with the task of overseeing it.

Shenzhen, an old fishing town, is today a futuristic metropolis known as the Chinese Silicon Valley. In the 1990s, it buzzed with activity. Deng Xiaoping, Mao’s successor and architect of the country’s period of openness and reform, designated it as one of the special economic zones where China was opening up to the world and experimenting with capitalist formulas.

Take-off

Wang arrived just as the economy was taking off. “I always had a dream: to be an entrepreneur and industrialize the technology I was researching,” he said in an article published by state agency Xinhua. These were the years in which mobile phones and consumer electronics were in rapid development — and everything needed batteries. He saw his opportunity, and in 1995, left what in China is referred to as the “rice bowl” (a secure job with a state-owned company) and founded his own battery company. He named it BYD, an acronym for Build Your Dreams. It resonated with the spirit of the times, in a China where communist leaders were beginning to accept businessmen into their ranks.

In 2003, seeking a foothold in the automotive sector, he bought Xi’an Qinchuan Automobile, a car manufacturer formerly of the state-owned arms conglomerate Norinco. From then on, he would achieve milestones in the production of combustion vehicles, and then electric cars.

BYD’s size has grown exponentially as it has moved from manufacturing components and assembling for multinationals like Apple (it remains one of its suppliers) to creating its own higher-value products. “BYD reflects a very typical pattern of Chinese business evolution: how an SME can go from being a mere auxiliary supplier to becoming a global leader,” says Yin. “That path, based on initial survival, diversification and then strategic specialization, is a reference not only for Chinese companies, but also for SMEs in other countries looking to scale up.”

In China, the firm’s models are renowned for being affordable utility vehicles for ordinary families. They also have luxury SUV models. An army of drivers from Chinese taxi apps use their cars. “It has a pretty good reputation,” admits 23-year-old Xiao Li. A rideshare driver, he has been transporting customers behind the wheel of a BYD on the streets of China’s ancient capital of Xi’an for three years. He highlights the cars’ price value and durability. “After working with them for several years, [I know] they are a very reliable option,” he concludes.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition

Entente in Busan. U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping finally met face to face after months of tension, and the meeting in the South Korean city of Busan resulted in several agreements, according to details provided by the Republican president after the meeting, aboard Air Force One on his way back to Washington. Trump assured that China has agreed to delay its restrictions on rare earth exports, one of the main points of conflict, for a period of one year, and announced an immediate reduction from 20% to 10% on the tariffs imposed in February on Chinese products imposed due to Washington’s claim Beijing is not doing enough to stop exports of fentanyl precursors. Trump also said he would visit China in April and that Beijing would begin to buy large quantities of soybeans, according to several media outlets aboard the presidential flight. In addition, according to the Republican, the two leaders discussed the war in Ukraine: “We‘re both going to work together to see if we can get something done,” he said.

“I think it was an amazing meeting,” the Republican summed up. “All of the rare earth [issue] has been settled, and that’s for the world. It was a situation that affected everyone, not just the United States.”

China confirmed the agreements from Beijing. A Chinese trade spokesperson detailed in a press conference that the United States has committed to suspending the expansion of the list of entities subject to export controls for one year. This regulatory change introduced by Washington in September, which potentially affected thousands of subsidiaries of Chinese companies, had sparked Beijing’s fury: its response was to approve a series of additional restrictions on rare earths shortly thereafter, which in turn aroused Washington’s anger.

Now, the restrictions remain in limbo for the next 12 months. “China will suspend the implementation of the corresponding export control measures announced on October 9 for one year and will study the detailed formulation of specific plans,” said the trade spokesman. Both sides have also agreed to pause — also for a period of one year — the new reciprocal port tariffs introduced a couple of weeks ago. And the Chinese government assured that consensus has been reached on “anti-drug cooperation on fentanyl, the expansion of agricultural trade, and the treatment of specific business cases.”

Likewise, the framework agreement for the sale of the popular Chinese video social network TikTok in the United States has been reinstated, as agreed in September during a meeting between Chinese and U.S. trade negotiators in Madrid, according to the Chinese spokesperson.

The meeting, the first between the leaders in six years, began at around 11:00 a.m. local time, according to Chinese media reports, and lasted around 100 minutes. “It is a great honor to be with a friend of mine, really, for a long time now, if you think about it,” Trump said in a flattering and positive tone at the start of the meeting, according to the White House channel’s broadcast on social media. “We will be having some discussions. I think we’ve already agreed to a lot of things, and we’ll agree to some more right now. President Xi is a great leader of a great country. We’re going to have a fantastic relationship for a long period of time, and it’s an honor to have you with us.”

Xi also said it was a pleasure to see each other again. “It’s been many years,” he said at the start of the meeting. He recalled that since Trump’s re-election, they have spoken three times on the phone, exchanged several letters, and remained in close contact. Thanks to the guidance of both leaders, relations have remained “stable on the whole,” he said. “Given our different national conditions, we do not always see eye to eye with each other. It is normal for the two leading economies of the world to have frictions now and then,” the Chinese leader continued. But in the face of challenges, he concluded, leaders should ensure that relations “stay the right course.”

“Trade should remain the ballast and propeller of China-U.S. relations, not a stumbling block or source of conflict,” the Chinese leader said, according to the official reading provided by the Xinhua news agency. He called on both nations to avoid a “vicious cycle of retaliation.”

Previously, both leaders posed with broad smiles for photographers in front of their countries’ flags. “We’re going to have a very successful meeting, I have no doubt,” Trump announced after the handshake. “But he’s a very tough negotiator, that’s not good,” he added. “We know each other well. We have a great relationship.” Xi remained silent at his side. At the end of the meeting, in a gesture of closeness, Trump accompanied his Chinese counterpart to his car, followed by another handshake and smiles from both men.

The meeting, which began on a friendly note, was preceded by an air of cordiality on both sides, seeking to ease the battle they are waging on various fronts. This is the first physical meeting between the leaders since the Republican returned to the White House in January and unleashed a tariff war between the two powers that reached levels of de facto trade blockade last spring, dragging much of the world economy down with it.

In the run-up to the meeting, Xi stated that China’s development does not conflict with Trump’s vision of “making America great again.” The two countries “can fully complement each other and prosper together,” he said.

The Chinese leader also acknowledged Trump’s work in resolving international conflicts. “You care a lot about world peace, and you’re very enthusiastic about settling various regional hot spot issues,” he said, citing the ceasefire agreement in Gaza brokered by the Republican. He also recalled that last Sunday, the U.S. president witnessed the signing of a peace declaration on the border between Cambodia and Thailand. He expressed how China, for its part, has also been promoting dialogue and reconciliation on sensitive issues. “The world today is confronted with many tough problems. China and the U.S. can jointly shoulder our responsibility as major countries and work together to accomplish more great and concrete things for the good of our two countries and the whole world.”

The meeting, which was on the verge of being canceled in recent weeks, was made possible largely thanks to the meeting between the negotiating teams from Washington and Beijing, who spent a weekend of intense debate trying to pave the way for their leaders. “We are going to have something that will be very, very satisfying for China and for us,” Trump announced on Wednesday night during a dinner with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and other regional leaders on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific forum. “I think it’s going to be a very good meeting. I’m looking forward to tomorrow morning,” he said.

After a seemingly calm summer, following Washington and Beijing’s agreement on a tariff truce in May, tensions flared up again in October after China deployed a new rare earth export control mechanism, which came as a blow to the White House. Beijing responded to what it considered a breach of the non-aggression pact by Washington, after the White House approved, among other measures, an expansion of the list of entities subject to export controls.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, held in the city of Gyeongju, the ancient medieval capital of the Korean peninsula. But their face-to-face took place at the airport in neighboring Busan, as if it were an eclipse: with Trump about to take off to return to the United States and Xi having just landed to attend the summit. Trump, in fact, is skipping the official days of the leaders’ forum, which begins on Friday.

The meeting took place just days before the expiration of the truce on reciprocal tariffs agreed in May and extended in August, which ends on November 1 with the clock ticking down to its entry into force this Saturday and the threat of new 100% tariffs on imports from China — touted by Trump as retaliation for Beijing’s recent restrictions on rare earths — looming large.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition

El presidente estadounidense, Donald Trump, y su homólogo chino, Xi Jinping, se han visto finalmente cara a cara después de meses de tensiones. El encuentro, en la ciudad surcoreana de Busan, ha arrancado en torno a las 11.00h local (las 3.00h de la madrugada en la España peninsular), según han informado los medios chinos. “Es un gran honor estar con mi amigo, realmente desde hace tiempo, si lo piensas, el muy muy distinguido y respetado presidente de China”, ha comentado Trump, con tono halagador y positivo, al inicio del encuentro, según la retransmisión del canal de la Casa Blanca en redes sociales. “Vamos a tener algunas discusiones. Ya hemos acordado muchas cosas, acordaremos algunas más ahora mismo. Pero el presidente Xi es un gran líder de un gran país, y creo que vamos a tener una relación fantástica para un largo periodo de tiempo”.

Xi también ha asegurado que es un placer volver a verse. “Han pasado muchos años”, ha dicho al inicio de la reunión. Y ha recordado que desde la reelección de Trump han hablado tres veces al teléfono, intercambiado varias cartas, y permanecido en contacto cercano. Gracias a la guía de ambos, las relaciones han permanecido “estables en su conjunto”, ha dicho. “Debido a las diferencias entre las dos naciones, no siempre estamos de acuerdo. Es normal que las dos principales economías del mundo tengan fricciones de vez en cuando”, ha proseguido el mandatario chino. Pero ante los retos, ha concluido, los líderes deberían asegurar que las relaciones mantienen el rumbo correcto.

Ambos han posado con amplias sonrisas para los fotógrafos ante las banderas de sus países. La entrevista, que ha comenzado con tono amable, ya venía precedida por ese aire de cordialidad desde ambas partes, que buscan relajar la batalla que mantienen en distintos frentes. Se trata de la primera reunión física entre los líderes desde que el republicano llegó a la Casa Blanca por segunda vez, en enero de este año, y desató un huracán arancelario entre las dos potencias que alcanzó cotas de bloqueo comercial de facto la pasada primavera, arrastrando por el camino a buena parte de la economía mundial.

La cita, que estuvo al borde de ser cancelada en las últimas semanas, ha sido posible en gran medida gracias a la reunión entre los equipos negociadores de Washington y Pekín, que han pasado un fin de semana de intenso debate tratando de allanar el camino de sus líderes. “Vamos a tener algo que será muy, muy satisfactorio para China y para nosotros”, anunciaba Trump el miércoles por la noche durante una cena con el presidente surcoreano, Lee Jae Myung, y otros líderes regionales en los márgenes de un foro de Asia-Pacífico. “Creo que va a ser una reunión muy buena. Estoy deseando que llegue mañana por la mañana”, anticipaba. El cara a cara podría durar “tres o cuatro horas”, avanzó también, según declaraciones recogidas por Fox News.

Tras un verano de aparente calma, después de que Washington y Pekín lograran sellar una tregua arancelaria en mayo, las tensiones se dispararon de nuevo en octubre, después de que China desplegara un nuevo mecanismo de control de exportación de tierras raras, que sentó como un aguijonazo en la Casa Blanca. Pekín respondía con este último golpe a lo que consideraba una ruptura del pacto de no agresión por parte de Washington, después de que la Casa Blanca aprobara, entre otras medidas, una ampliación de la lista de entidades sometidas a controles de exportaciones, que afecta potencialmente a miles de subsidiarias de empresas chinas.

Trump acude a la cita con Xi con la expectativa de que este acepte retrasar la implementación de las restricciones a las exportaciones de minerales críticos; mientras, Pekín confía en que Trump dé marcha atrás en su política de barreras comerciales y cortapisas tecnológicas, y aspira además a un diálogo generalizado que estabilice la relación.

El encuentro se ha fraguado en los márgenes de la cumbre del Foro de Cooperación Económica Asia-Pacífico (APEC), que se celebra en la ciudad de Gyeongju, la antigua capital medieval de Corea. Pero su encuentro ha tenido lugar en el aeropuerto de la vecina Busan, como si fuera un eclipse: con Trump a punto de despegar para regresar a Estados Unidos y Xi recién aterrizado para asistir a la cumbre. Trump, de hecho, se salta las jornadas oficiales del foro de líderes, que comienza el viernes.