[From the Scene] BYD zeroes in on continuing exponential growth

SHENZHEN/CHONGQING, China — The license plate on the Denza Z9, a high-performance electric vehicle produced by Chinese EV maker BYD, read “10,000,000th” as a group of Korean journalists entered the BYD’s final assembly factory in Shenzhen on Tuesday.

BYD celebrated its 30th anniversary with the completion of its 10-millionth car at the manufacturing plant the previous day.

The 10 assembly lines at the site were packed with BYD vehicles. A BYD official noted that the day’s production target is to roll out 1,260 vehicles, explaining that the facility features an hourly production capacity of 60 units. In other words, the plant was set to undergo operation for at least 21 hours.

Robotic arms moved relentlessly, putting windshields and tires on vehicles. The BYD official said the company had achieved a 100 percent automation rate for those jobs, adding that the final assembly factory’s overall automation rate stood at 25 percent.

According to the BYD official, the average age of workers at the final assembly factory was less than 30 years old. They were operating under a double-shift system that required 11 hours per shift. Apartment complexes housing the workers stood right next door.

As the complete vehicles rolled out, they were taken for a number of tests, such as checking their adjustment, potential water leakage and a five-kilometer on-road driving.

There were training booths for new employees inside the assembly factory as the Chinese EV giant continues to hire more workers to cope with its manufacturing demands, which have been seeing exponential growth over the last few years. The automaker produced its one-millionth car in May 2021.

The Korean journalists also had an inside look at BYD’s battery plant in Chongqing on Thursday, assessing how FinDreams Battery, the Chinese EV maker’s subsidiary, produces its patented lithium iron-phosphate battery named the Blade Battery.

BYD had held a demonstration of the Blade Battery’s durability at its headquarters in Shenzhen the day before. A nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) battery and a Blade Battery were placed side by side, and penetrated by steel nails. The NCM battery exploded with a loud bang, catching fire in seconds, whereas nothing happened to the Blade Battery.

“We call it ‘Seven Supers’ — Super cost, super safety, super endurance, super strength, super power, super low temperature and super performance,” said a BYD official during the visit to the Chongqing site.

“For one battery cell, we have over 600 patents.”

According to the official, there are currently two battery plants in Chongqing with an overall production capacity of 35 gigawatt-hours per year, which would be enough to power about 300,000 EVs.

The official added that the company is currently expanding research and development facilities to advance battery technologies further.

The battery cell production line operated in compliance with strict environmental settings such as having 29 or fewer fine particles sized at 0.005 millimeters in one cubic meter of the clean room, setting the humidity at less than 1 percent and the temperature at 25 degrees Celsius at all times.

“The production line here is 100 percent automated,” said the official.

“Our yield rate is 99.9 percent. The first plant can produce one battery cell in six seconds and the second plant can produce a battery cell in just three seconds.”