BYD was founded in February 1995 with an initial workforce of around 20 employees. Now it has become one of China's largest automakers, with a total workforce of more than 900,000.

BYD (HKG: 1211, OTCMKTS: BYDDY) has reached the milestone of rolling out its 10 millionth new energy-vehicle (NEV) off the production line, marking an important moment in the Chinese auto giant's history.

The automaker announced that its 10 millionth NEV rolled off the assembly line today, a Z9 sedan officially launched by sub-brand Denza on November 15, the first day of the 2024 Guangzhou auto show.

BYD delivered the vehicle to Feng Ji -- founder and CEO of Game Science, the producer of the Chinese video game Black Myth: Wukong.

The two companies entered into a global strategic partnership last month, making BYD the exclusive automotive brand partner for the widely popular video game.

As part of the partnership, BYD and Game Science would work together to promote the scanning of China's cultural relics and monuments into digital assets to support future restoration efforts, according to an October 20 announcement from the NEV maker.

The Denza Z9 is available in plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) and battery electric vehicle (BEV) variants with a starting price of RMB 334,800 ($46,270), the same as the Z9GT, which went on sale on September 20.

The Z9 comes standard with BYD's e3 technology, which can be seen as a scaled-down version of BYD's e4 technology built for ultra-luxury cars.

The e3 is based on the Xuanji architecture and brings tri-motor independent drive with dual-motor independent steering at the rear wheels.

Show cars of the Denza Z9 are being sent to Denza's stores nationwide, and official deliveries of the model would begin in early December, the BYD sub-brand's head of sales, Zhao Changjiang, said on November 16 on Weibo.

BYD was founded in February 1995 with about 20 employees. Now, the company has become one of China's largest car companies, with a total workforce of more than 900,000 and nearly 110,000 research and development staff.

The company started out in the battery business and officially entered the automotive industry in 2003 with the acquisition of Qinchuan, located in Xi'an, Shaanxi province in northwest China.

BYD built its first car, called the 316, in 2004, but the model was quickly canceled because dealers thought it was unlikely to succeed after experiencing it, BYD chairman and president Wang Chuanfu said at an event today.

In 2005, BYD launched its first production car, the F3, which sold 100,000 units in 14 months on the market, giving BYD confidence in the automotive sector, according to Wang.

The company initiated the development of plug-in hybrid technology in 2004 and launched the first-generation DM hybrid technology platform in 2008.

In 2008, the BYD F3DM, equipped with the first-generation DM hybrid technology, rolled off the production line at its Xi'an manufacturing base, and was the world's first plug-in hybrid vehicle to be seen on the road.

In 2021, BYD launched its fourth-generation DM platform, dividing the technology into the more performance-oriented DM-p and the more energy-consumption-oriented DM-i.

On May 28 of this year, the company launched its fifth major DM platform, giving models with DM-i technology even lower fuel consumption.

Four years ago, BYD's sales were still tiny, at less than 30,000 per month. Now, the company is selling more than 500,000 units per month.

On May 19, 2021, BYD saw its one millionth NEV roll off the production line, making it the first Chinese automaker to reach that milestone in the NEV segment.

With NEV sales growing rapidly, BYD ceased production and sales of vehicles powered entirely by internal combustion engines in March 2022, switching to a focus on producing PHEVs and BEVs.

In the January-October period of this year, BYD's NEV sales amounted to 3.25 million units, up 36.49 percent year-on-year.

BYD's global deliveries would reach 6 million units by 2026, with about 1.5 million in overseas markets and the rest at home, JPMorgan analyst Nick Lai's team said in a July 9 research note.

($1 = RMB 7.2352)

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