BYD now has nearly one million employees, 11 major research institutes and 110,000 engineers, making it the carmaker with the most R&D personnel in the world, revealed founder, chairman and CEO Wang Chuanfu at the first China Innovation and Technology Festival hosted by China Central Television, according to a CarNewsChina report.
Since 2011, the carmaker’s number of engineers has grown from over 20,000 to nearly 110,000. Over 60,000 employees joined in 2021 to bring the total headcount past 280,000, and by the following year this doubled to around 570,000. As of 2024, BYD has nearly one million employees, with the largest increase being in its production and R&D staff.
Additionally, BYD applies for an astonishing 32 patents on average per working day, and as of 2024’s third quarter, the company’s cumulative R&D investment has surpassed RMB160 billion (RM98 billion).
BYD has in the past two to three years recruited more than 50,000 fresh college graduates, of which nearly 70% this year have Master’s and Doctorate degrees, and nearly 80% are R&D personnel. Wang said most of the senior executives and technical leads joined as fresh grads, including passenger vehicle business group COO He Zhiqi and senior VP Yang Dongsheng.
CNC further reports that BYD sold 3.7573 million new energy vehicles from January to November 2024, representing a 40.02% year-on-year jump. Also, its total power battery installed capacity in November reached 16.87 GWh, bringing the cumulative year-to-date total to 117.54 GWh. The carmaker expects to close 2024 with 4.27 million vehicles sold, beating its 3.6 million-unit target.
Closer to home, the Chinese giant is setting up a plant in Indonesia that is expected to begin operations in 2025’s fourth quarter, creating around 8,700 jobs. The company is 30 years old this year.
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