BYD, Changan announce establishment of vehicle-battery JV

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- BYD and Changan Automobile singed a strategic cooperation agreement on July 5 in Shenzhen, aiming to establish a joint venture, which specializes in the manufacturing and marketing of new-energy vehicle (NEV) batteries. By virtue of both parties' advantageous resources in such areas as traditional fuel-powered vehicles, NEVs, intelligent internet, sharing mobility and overseas market, BYD and Changan will deepen their cooperation comprehensively with focuses on electrified and intelligent vehicles as well as sharing mobility.

Under their cooperation, Changan and BYD showed their willingness of capital cooperation in both the upstream and downstream of new energy industrial chain. They will jointly develop battery business for NEVs and plan to set up an independent vehicle-battery JV.

The JV will be sited in Liangjiang New Area, Chongqing in the near future. Concentrating on manufacturing and marketing of EV batteries, the new JV's planned 10GWh production capacity will be divided into phases. By making full use of their advantages in platforms, technologies, management, manufacturing and marketing, BYD and Changan will jointly develop a world-leading vehicle-battery industrialized platform to accelerate the development of NEVs.

In the meantime, Changan Automobile will acquire a certain amount of stakes in BYD's battery business. With the binding of equity and capital, both parties' partnership can be further enhanced. In the future, they will deeply research and develop such areas as battery recycling and remanufacturing, fast charging of batteries, mobile battery swapping and battery charging highway.

Apart from the cooperation in battery area, the two parties will carry out in-depth technology cooperation in various segments, such as NEVs, new energy industrial chain, intelligent connectivity, intelligent interaction and autonomous driving. Based on their advantages in PHEV and EV technologies, BYD and Changan will explore the R&D on complete vehicles as well as sharing platforms. They target to develop a new mobility that integrates humans, vehicles and technologies together.

In the area of mobility and overseas market, both parties will capitalize on "Changan mobility" platform to put BYD's NEV models into operation, in order to jointly establish a three-dimensional mobility solution in sharing mobility area. At the same time, Changan and BYD will jointly seek overseas cooperation in KD plants, channels and services.

Wang Chuanfu, chairman and president of BYD, stated that the strategic cooperation is BYD's significant move of opening up its battery supplying and marketing system, and will exert great importance to the long-term development of BYD's battery business and even the whole group.

During the signing ceremony, Zhu Huarong, president of Changan Automobile emphasized that the cooperation not only set a new sample of partnership for China's enterprises, but also create a new era for China's intelligent vehicles and NEV industrial development.