Bifalgorithm post

BYD makes 75% of its vehicle components in-house. That single fact explains why their cars cost what they cost. Their own batteries, their own semiconductors, their own motors, their own power electronics. At their Huffay plant, 1,200 welding robots run a 97% automated line. A machine installs all four wheels, screws automatically fed and laser lined in 48 seconds. BYD's Xiao Mo plant near Shenzhen produces a body in white every 58 seconds. In the Western automotive supply chain, those margins get distributed across Bosch, Continental, ZF, Magna, Aptiv, and Vinion, Mobileye and hundreds of Tier 2 suppliers. Each with shareholders, headquarters, R&D budgets, and legal departments. BYD just owns that entire layer. When UBS engineers tore apart a BYD seal in 2023, they attributed its cost effectiveness to vertical integration in the cell-to-pack blade battery design where cells go directly into the structural foreplan, eliminating modules that legacy battery packs use. Top Gear called the interior genuinely premium with build quality that feels a match for anything from Japan or Korea. Even crazier, they couldn't get enough shipping slots for their export volume, so they built their own ships. The BYD Shunjun 16-decks 9,200 vehicles, the largest car carrier ever built by capacity. That's what vertical integration looks like when there's nothing left to outsource. If looking at BYD makes you ask why your Toyota or Ford was so expensive, ask them why they outsource half their production.

BYD makes 75% of its vehicle components in-house. That single fact explains why their cars cost what they cost. Their own batteries, their own semiconductors,…