During the DVN event at Shanghai last year, I had the chance to have a long discussion with the BYD team about vehicle lighting technology and challenges, and they proposed a tour of their Shenzhen headquarters. Last month I arranged that visit.
Shenzhen is a hyperdynamic new city, with a population of about 18 million. It’s quite near Hong Kong, with metro and ferry services connecting those cities. Shenzhen has developed quickly over the last four decades (and counting) to become the top-GDP city—higher than the long-leading Guangzhou—in Guangdong Province in the south of China. A prominent industry and technology hub, sometimes called China’s Silicon Valley, Shenzhen’s entrepreneurial, innovative, and competitive culture has resulted in the city being home to numerous small manufacturers and software companies. Big-name companies also are seated there, including Huawei, Tencent, BYD, DJI, and more.
Guangdong in general, and Shenzhen in particular, are strong bases for the LED industry, including light source manufacturing (APT Electronics, Refond, Nationstar…) and for the vehicle lighting business as well. That was plenty of incentive for a trip to visit the lighting ecosystem and our DVN members.
First stop: BYD! We wanted to know more about its history and its unique vertical integration strategy for the company as a whole, and also for lighting. BYD design and make their own lamps—they also supply lighting for other car companies—and they also make their own LEDs and semiconductors.
Recently, BYD’s Yangwang U7 was released, equipped with DLP and other interesting lighting features. Now I’ve driven it at night, and it is primo!
We hope you will enjoy this deep dive into BYD and their lighting division.
Looking forward to meeting you this week for those who have chance to be in Koln for our DVN interior or in Detroit for our AEB Lighting/ADAS workshop.
Sincerely yours,
