Upon arriving at the palatial entrance of BYD’s hexagon-shaped headquarters in Pingshan, on the outskirts of Shenzhen, a giant screen presents visitors with a question of biblical proportions: “Where is Noah’s ark that saved mankind?”
The answer, given the query’s prominence at the doorway to a company whose rapid expansion is sending shivers through the boardrooms of automakers worldwide, appears to be: “right here”.
BYD and its 58-year-old founder Wang Chuanfu have reason to feel confident. The Chinese company now rivals Elon Musk’s Tesla for the world’s most dominant EV company. In China, by far the biggest auto market, BYD’s low-cost pure battery and plug-in hybrids account for about one-third of all new electric vehicles sold.