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BYD Plans Massive Hike in Battery-Making Capacity
BYD Co. Ltd. plans to multiply its current capacity to make batteries for electric and plug-in cars eightfold by 2020, assuming market growth supports the expansion.
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BYD Co. Ltd. plans to multiply its current capacity to make batteries for electric and plug-in cars eightfold by 2020, assuming market growth supports the expansion.
The company's current capacity is about 4 gigawatt-hours and will grow to 10 GWh later this year. BYD tells Reuters it will continue to add capacity at a rate of 6 GWh per year at least through 2019 if demand warrants.
The expansion would give BYD capacity of 34 GWh by the end of the decade, nearly equal to that of Tesla Motors Inc.'s "gigafactory" in Nevada. Tesla's $5 billion facility is expected to begin first-phase production in 2016. By 2020 it could have annual output of 35 GWh, or enough cells to power 500,000 electric vehicles.
BYD is 9% owned by a unit of billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. company. BYD makes electric cars and taxis in China and is preparing to build electric buses in Brazil later this year.
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