EV industry benefiting from BYD's expertise

China's No 1 new energy vehicle manufacturer BYD is assisting some international carmakers' electrification drives with its expertise in batteries.

Ssangyong became BYD's latest partner, when the two signed a deal last week to develop battery packs for the South Korean carmaker.

"FinDreams Industry, a wholly-owned battery manufacturer of BYD, will participate in the battery development project," Ssangyong said in a statement.

BYD launched FinDreams in March 2020, which specializes in core component production for eco-friendly electric vehicles.

Ssangyong plans to dispatch its researchers to BYD despite the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the partnership will pave the way for its efforts to transform itself into an EV maker, said a company representative.

The batteries to be developed by the two companies will be installed on Ssangyong's U100 EV, which is expected to be mass-produced in 2023.

The South Korean carmaker said cooperation with BYD is aimed at eliminating the market's worries about the company's future and establishing a stable supply and demand system for its electric vehicles in the future.

In addition, the partnership is expected to shorten the time needed for electric vehicle development, which is an opportunity for Ssangyong to improve its competitiveness in the coming years.

Toyota, the world's No 1 carmaker, has also turned to BYD to build an affordable and competitive small electric sedan in China in 2022, Reuters reported earlier this month.

The breakthrough was chiefly down to BYD's less bulky lithium-iron-phosphate blade batteries and its lower-cost engineering know-how, said people familiar with the matter.

Toyota now has two dozen engineers in Shenzhen working side-by-side with about 100 BYD counterparts, said Reuters.

Toyota established a battery joint venture with BYD in 2020 to assist its electrification plans in China.

"We appreciate that BYD and Toyota can become 'teammates', able to put aside our rivalry and collaborate. We hope to further advance and expand both BYD and Toyota from the efforts of the joint venture with BYD," said Shigeki Terashi, an executive of Toyota.

BYD was founded in 1995 as a battery business and has grown into an energy solutions company, manufacturing not only electrified vehicles but other products such as large-sized energy storage cells.

In 2008, BYD became the first company in the world to sell mass-produced plug-in hybrid electrified vehicles.

It is now the bestselling new energy vehicle maker in China, with over 90,000 units sold in November, according to statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

BYD is also one of the largest battery makers worldwide. Statistics from SNE Research showed that it ranked fourth in October in terms of the installed capacity of power batteries.

Shi Jinman, an automobile analyst at Guotai Jun'an Securities, said: "The establishment of the independent brand (FinDreams) benefits the company as the move makes it easier to reach more clients overseas."

"In addition, the overseas subsidiaries can work more efficiently on making decisions such as building local plants and taking advantage of BYD's digital channels to boost global expansion," said Shi.

Earlier this year, BYD started to hire engineers for its first overseas battery plant in Europe. It did not offer details about its operations, including its location and manufacturing capacity.