BYD’s Chief has made a passionate plea to Chinese auto manufacturers to band together, which was accompanied by a video calling on manufacturers to “demolish the old legends” of the manufacturing world.
The call comes from BYD’s founder and chairman, Wang Chuanfu, who heads China’s biggest auto manufacturer that was celebrating hitting a landmark production and sales milestone.
Chuanfu said that “I believe the time has come for Chinese brands,” while standing in front of a sign combining the logos of China’s twelve largest auto manufacturers in a sign of collaborative strength.
“It’s an emotional need for the 1.4 billion Chinese people to see a Chinese brand becoming global,” he added.
The speech was accompanied by a video produced by BYD showcasing the strength of its manufacturing base and companies like the state-owned FAW Group way back in 1956 through to modern companies like Nio, Le Auto.
The narration of that video stated that “our stories are different from each other but share the same direction… there’s no distinction between ‘you’ and me,” signifying the common mission to get a Chinese manufacturer atop the leaderboard.
It concluded with a blunt statement that manufacturers should join forces to “demolish the old legends and achieve new world-class brands,” under a rebranded “Chinese Autos” marque.
According to a report from Reuters, BYD and other Chinese manufacturers “are locked in a bruising price war that was started by Tesla in January and shows no signs of easing.”
Tesla made the move to cut prices for its Model 3 and Model Y in China earlier in the year, which was followed by major markets like the US and Australia shortly after.
That same report shows that BYD’s calls were called into question by the CTO at Great Wall Motors, Wang Yuanli, who said that “at such a critical moment, how can Chinese automakers be together?”
“If we only talk about being together but keep our bitterness in our hearts, it would be better to have the fight first,” he added.
This isn’t the first sign of tensions between GWM and BYD, with the former calling into question two of BYD’s emissions results for two high-volume hybrid variants while taking them to regulators.
BYD has rejected these claims, threatening GWM with legal action.
Keyword: BYD Calls on Chinese Manufacturers to Unify and “Demolish the Old Legends”