Build Your Dreams (BYD) is China’s largest EV manufacturer and BYD is interested in 10 gigafactories not just one. BYD’s hidden project in the core of China’s Henan province is set to shake up the auto world as BYD attempts to reimagine the electric vehicle (EV) industry entirely. BYD may very well be doing something that was previously deemed impossible and is beating Tesla’s existing Gigafactory. Elon Musk needs to be watching carefully as BYD plans to create quite a stir in the mobility realm.
A larger than expected megafactory in Zhengzhou
Located in Zhengzhou will be BYD’S megafactory that may very well be known as the terafactory rewriting the script in the mobility realm. The factory is believed to be more than just a factory, but rather a city on its own comprising of medical centers, shopping areas, a stadium, and worker dormitories.
While the promise of a megafactory being much like a city is exciting, the fact that eight construction phases need to be completed is all the more interesting. Altogether the plan is to produce one million EV’s per year from this terafactory. This incredible site was launched in 2023 and since then over 60,000 workers have been employed. Expansion plans and more hires are on the cards for the upcoming years.
BYD has not merely created a production center, but rather a breathing industrial ecosystem. Thus far, BYD has to compete with the likes of Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada which is believed to be one of the largest centers in the West. In terms of scale, BYD’s facility is rather massive being ten times the size of Tesla’s factory. Tesla’s Nevada facility covers more or less 4,5 square miles and BYD’s factory is said to be far larger than that.
Tesla’s Elon Musk should seriously be watching BYD
What sets BYD’s factory apart from Tesla’s factory is that the model depends on vertical integration and human capital. In-house production is taken care of in Zhengzhou and as such costs tend to be reduced. BYD is fully capable of cutting Tesla’s competitive prices even further.
Offering such competitive prices have made a considerable difference for BYD in that in 2024 the company sold about 4,25 million EVs. Due to the larger scale of the project, BYD is capable of experimenting with hyper-localized logistics. BYD is enabling us to focus on having a people-centered city. While the people-centered city is good, the company is also promising to produce 200,000 cars per year from its headquarters in Szeged, Hungary proving that BYD has landed in Europe as well and is threatening Tesla.
Looking towards the terafactory with BYD
The human-centric design of BYD’s factory site sets it apart. There are many workers living on site at the moment and this has somewhat made the line between a factory and a 32,000 acres urban environment unclear. Nevertheless, with free accomodation on offer for respective workers, BYD has created an environment that is centered around work satisfaction and employee understanding.
BYD, however, is not an automaker that takes uncalculated risks and thus BYD is not betting on EVs only but looking towards redesigning what EVs of the future will look like and how these EVs will be made. BYD is making a statement by dominating the global EV market and by creating its own innovative factory model.
BYD’s biggest rival, Tesla, will have to continue watching BYD as this Chinese automaker is clear on its mission to pose a challenge to Western automakers. Thus far, we have already received the news that BYD plans to break into America to sink Tesla. The world should be keeping its eyes on BYD and Elon Musk should be checking out BYD as well. China’s megafactory may very well live up to its plans and produce a million cars a year.
