BYD already employs 1.02 million people. That’s more than Toyota, GM, Ford, and Tesla combined.
BYD President Wang Chuanfu stated at the 33rd CSAE conference that the Chinese company has over 1.02 million employees. At the end of 2025, this number was around 869,600, so approximately 150,000 people were added in 10 months, despite declining sales.
According to Wang, about 960,000 people work in China, while around 60,000 work overseas. Even the 120,000 include R&D engineers who work on batteries, engines, control electronics, and semiconductors. Wang attributes this scale to vertical integration: producing batteries, chips, and engines in-house has transformed the company, founded in 1994 as a battery manufacturer, into the world’s best-selling NEV brand.
Employment Fluctuations and Comparison with Competitors
BYD had 570,100 employees at the end of 2022 and 703,500 a year later. In September 2024 it surpassed 900,000, ending the year with 968,900 employees. Cuts followed: the 2025 annual report showed 869,600 employees, a decrease of about 99,000, mainly in manufacturing. Data from S&P Global Market Intelligence indicated 911,900 employees by the end of June, meaning over 100,000 new losses occurred in about four months.
Toyota, GM, Ford, and Tesla combined have around 851,000 employees: 390,927 (as of March 31, 2026), 156,000, 169,000, and 134,785 respectively. BYD has about 170,000 more employees. The Volkswagen Group along with its Chinese joint ventures has 662,942 employees, while Stellantis has 258,668.
Few cars per employee
The headcount alone doesn’t determine success. BYD sold around 4.6 million vehicles in 2025 with 869,600 employees, resulting in 5.3 vehicles per employee. Tesla had 1,636,129 vehicles and 134,785 employees, which is about 12 vehicles per employee. The Volkswagen Group reported around 13.5 vehicles per employee, while Toyota, with 11.3 million vehicles sold (including Daihatsu and Hino), had about 29 vehicles per employee.
However, this comparison is misleading. BYD’s figure includes BYD Electronic, a contract manufacturer of devices for other brands that had 165,000 employees by the end of 2025. The company also produces batteries for other corporations, chips, engines, energy storage systems, and rail transport equipment. The high headcount is largely the cost of vertical integration.
Sales in China are declining, while overseas sales are growing
In the first nine months of 2026, BYD sold 3,131,576 vehicles, 3.9% fewer than the previous year. September was the best month with 463,561 units sold. A price war continues in the Chinese market, with companies like Geely and Leapmotor gaining share. In the first half of the year, both revenue (344.8 billion yuan) and net profit (12.3 billion yuan) declined.
Growth is only seen overseas: 1,342,960 vehicles were sold by the end of September, a 92.7% increase, accounting for about 43% of total sales. Meanwhile, only around 6% of the workforce works outside China. BYD still manufactures almost everything domestically before exporting it worldwide, although factories in Thailand, Brazil, and Hungary have already started operations. Tariffs in Europe, Brazil, or Mexico require local production, but there is no guarantee that Hungarian or Brazilian plants will match the efficiency of Chinese ones.
The model’s affordability is evident: The Seagull costs around $10,000 in China, and the company still makes a profit on it. This is possible thanks to relatively cheap and abundant labor in Chinese factories.
The most concerning figure for competitors is the second one: 120,000 engineers is almost as many as Tesla employs across the entire company.
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