BYD workforce passes 1.02 million, more than Toyota, GM, Ford and Tesla combined

Why it matters: BYD is China's largest electric-vehicle maker and its scale is a marker of how far the country's car industry has moved from copying foreign models to setting global prices and volumes. Its headcount also reflects a business model that keeps batteries, chips and motors in-house, which foreign rivals are now watching closely as Chinese EVs expand abroad.

BYD now employs more than 1.02 million people, chairman Wang Chuanfu said, more than Toyota, General Motors, Ford and Tesla employ together.

Wang gave the figures on Wednesday at the 33rd annual conference of the China Society of Automotive Engineers (CSAE). About 960,000 of the workers are in China and roughly 60,000 are abroad, according to Wang, and up to 120,000 are research and development engineers.

The total is up from about 869,600 at the end of 2025, meaning the company added roughly 150,000 people in ten months. Data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence put BYD at 911,900 employees at the end of June.

Wang credits vertical integration, keeping batteries, chips and motors in-house, for the company's rise from a battery maker founded in 1994 to the world's top-selling new energy vehicle brand for several years running. He described it as a microcosm of China's auto industry going from follower to leader.

The hiring has come while sales slip. BYD sold 3,131,576 vehicles in the first nine months of 2026, down 3.9% year on year, and its first-half revenue of 344.8 billion yuan (about $48.6 billion) and net profit of 12.3 billion yuan (about $1.7 billion) both fell. Overseas sales reached 1,342,960 units through September, up 92.7%, and now make up about 43% of total volume.

The headcount covers more than car assembly. It includes BYD Electronic, a majority-owned contract manufacturer with 165,000 employees of its own at the end of 2025, as well as the company's battery, chip, motor, energy storage and rail transit businesses.