BYD Company Limited

New Capabilities

Building 30 GWh sodium-ion factory; third-generation sodium-ion technology in development

Every rechargeable battery in every electric car on the road carries the same vulnerability: if something goes wrong inside a cell — a puncture, a manufacturing defect, a short circuit — temperatures can spike and trigger a self-feeding chain reaction called thermal runaway, producing toxic smoke, fire, and sometimes explosions. A team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences has now published results in Nature Energy showing a sodium-ion battery with a built-in chemical failsafe: an electrolyte that automatically solidifies into a physical barrier when the cell heats past 150 degrees Celsius, cutting off the chain reaction before it starts. The battery survived both nail-puncture and 300-degree-Celsius oven tests with zero smoke, fire, or explosion — a first for a large-format sodium-ion cell.

Updated Apr 9

Money Moves

Overtook Tesla as world's largest battery-electric vehicle seller in 2025

Tesla delivered 358,023 vehicles in the first quarter of 2026 — roughly 8,000 fewer than Wall Street expected — while producing over 50,000 more cars than it sold. That growing gap between production and deliveries signals something automakers dread: cars sitting on lots because buyers aren't showing up. The miss marks at least the fifth quarter in which Tesla has underperformed analyst expectations since early 2024.

Updated Apr 2

Money Moves

Market leader driving China's EV price war with a 6.4% operating margin

Nio burned through more than 100 billion yuan over a decade, came within weeks of insolvency in 2019, and needed a government rescue to survive. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the Chinese electric vehicle maker posted its first-ever quarterly net profit: 282.7 million yuan, or roughly $40 million, on record deliveries of nearly 125,000 vehicles.

Updated Mar 10

Money Moves

Surpassed Tesla as world's largest EV maker

Joe Ward, who started at Tesla as a logistics intern in 2010, now oversees global sales for a company hemorrhaging senior executives. His promotion follows Raj Jegannathan's departure after just months as North American sales chief—the second person to leave that role in under a year. Since April 2024, Tesla has lost more than a dozen senior leaders, including its head of batteries, its supercharging director, and the executive who ran operations across North America and Europe.

Updated Feb 10

Rule Changes

Potential entrant to Canadian market

Canada followed the U.S. in imposing 100% tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in October 2024. Seventeen months later, Prime Minister Mark Carney flew to Beijing and cut them to 6.1%—the first explicit break with American trade policy since Trump began his tariff offensive. The deal allows 49,000 Chinese EVs into Canada annually in exchange for China slashing canola tariffs from 84% to 15%, unlocking $3 billion in agricultural exports. The quota rises to 70,000 vehicles over five years, with half reserved for models under $35,000 CAD by 2030. Chinese automakers BYD and Chery have already met with Canadian officials about building production facilities on Canadian soil.

Updated Jan 31

Money Moves

World's largest EV seller (2025)

China posted a $1.2 trillion trade surplus for 2025—the largest any country has ever recorded. The number is roughly equivalent to the GDP of Indonesia, the world's 16th-largest economy. It comes after seven years of U.S. tariffs designed to shrink that very surplus, and eight days after Canada struck a deal with Beijing that slashed Chinese EV tariffs from 100% to 6.1%, marking a dramatic shift in Western trade policy toward China that prompted Trump to threaten 100% retaliatory tariffs on Canadian goods.

Updated Jan 30