BYD’s cars are getting smarter, and its huge R&D staff could fill a city
Chinese EV giant BYD – which has hired some 90,000 employees in R&D to ramp up its smart tech game – now has a new smart car system. Dubbed Xuanji, it offers functions like automated parking and voice recognition to better compete with Tesla’s AutoPark and VoiceCommands.
To substantially improve its smart car technology, BYD has been hiring software engineers to help bring the company’s EVs to smart-driving levels of rivals like Tesla and Chinese companies Nio, Xpeng, and Huawei, Reuters reports.
To get a sense of scale: BYD employs more than 90,000 employees in its research and development departments, and more than 4,000 of them working on L2-level smart driving. BYD says it has 230,000 employees in total spread over 50 campuses across the world.
Alongside launching Xuanji at BYD’s 2024 Dream Day yesterday, BYD also announced that it plans to invest 5 billion Chinese yuan ($701.8 million) into the development an all-terrain professional test drive sites across China. Last year BYD was the first Chinese automaker to secure a conditional testing license for L3 autonomous driving on high-speed roads in Shenzhen.
Last year, the company sold 1.6 million fully battery-electric vehicles, overtaking Telsa in overall BEV sales. Adding up sales for all so-called new energy vehicles, including battery-only vehicles and plug-in hybrids, BYD sold a whooping 3 million vehicles in 2023.
BYD, the country’s dominant automaker in the world’s largest auto market, had a massive 62% growth in sales last year from 2022. BYD tripled its profits to $1.5 billion in the first half of last year, according to Car News China.
Of course, the Chinese EV market is booming – but looking at the numbers, it’s pretty staggering. Chinese automakers expect to have sold some 9.4 million EVs and hybrids last year, a bump from 6.9 million in 2022, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. For 2024, those numbers are expected to jump to 11.5 million.
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Lucid Motors (LCID) is recruiting more high-profile stars to spotlight its new luxury electric SUV, the Gravity.
The luxury EV maker is teaming up with some of the NBA’s biggest stars, Jalen Brunsen and Josh Hart, in its latest collaboration.
Lucid enlisted Jalen and Josh, teammates on the New York Knicks, for a new market campaign designed to celebrate “those who refuse to settle for the status quo.”
Keep a lookout this Wednesday, October 22, during the New York Knicks home opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers to see Jalen and Josh hype the Lucid Gravity electric SUV.
Lucid, Hart, and Brunson plan to showcase “how precise performance, cultural influence, and athletic excellence come together — on the court, on the road, and in the moments that move individuals.” The partnership is the latest as Lucid builds a roster of high-profile celebrities and athletes to promote the brand.
“To be one of the best, you have to be willing to do whatever it takes,” Brunson said, adding “It’s a commitment to improving every day, and never accepting that you can’t reach that next level. I see that same passion for excellence in Lucid.”
Lucid said the collaboration “underscores the brand’s mission to compromise nothing” as it builds a roster of high-profile celebs and athletes to promote the new Gravity electric SUV.
In August, Lucid teamed up with Timothée Chalamet, its first global brand ambassador, for an ad campaign called “Driven.”
Lucid also attended NFL star Travis Kelce’s, Kelce Car Jam last month. For every test drive, Lucid donated $87 to Kelce’s Eighty-Seven and Running Foundation. Kelce founded Eighty-Seven & Running in 2015 to mentor disadvantaged youth, help develop their skills, and motivate them to get out and do their best.
As it ramps up output, the EV maker has been actively promoting the Gravity. Last week, Lucid trolled Tesla on social media in a video asking Elon Musk’s Grok, “What’s the best luxury EV?”
Grok’s answer: The 2025 Lucid Air. Do you agree? ChatGPT and CoPilot said the same.
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Elon Musk has openly threatened to leave Tesla, or at least his role as CEO, if he doesn’t get his ridiculous compensation.
He is now saying the quiet part out loud.
Tesla shareholders are about to vote on a new, controversial compensation package for Elon Musk.
While many are focused on the ridiculous size of the stock options, which could be worth up to $1 trillion, many analysts have highlighted other problems with the package.
A Reuters report last week noted that, with business as usual and a market capitalization growth below the S&P average, Musk could still receive one or even two tranches of his compensation package, worth between $20 billion and $40 billion.
In short, under the rules of the package, Musk could receive the biggest payday in history for returning below average returns.
That’s on top of the CEO already having received more compensation from Tesla than the company has earned in profits since its existence.
One commentator on X pointed out the concern about the first tranche of the compensation plan. Instead of addressing the genuine concern, Musk responded by boasting about Tesla’s market capitalization and suggesting that he won’t be Tesla’s CEO if he doesn’t get the pay:
Tesla is worth more than all other automotive companies combined. Which of those CEOs would you like to run Tesla? It won’t be me.
The CEO then shared posts encouraging Tesla shareholders to vote for the shareholders meeting, which is happening on November 6th.
Electrek’s Take
There are many issues with this comment. First off, it completely ignores a real problem with the comp package. Even if you believe that Musk would deserve $1 trillion in compensation for bringing Tesla’s valuation to $20 trillion, the package shouldn’t allow for Musk to make tens of billions from below average return.
It looks like the package is being used as a trojan horse to dazzle shareholders with the promise of unlikely crazy returns when the more likely outcome is to give Musk what would still be a record compensation for Tesla delivering a below average return on investment.
The fact that Musk doesn’t want to address this clear issue is a red flag.
Furthermore, Musk is using a dirty card: you play by my rules or I’m gone.
This is what I previously called the ‘Tesla Dilemma’: Elon Musk is destroying Tesla’s profitable car business, but at the current valuation, his lies about self-driving and robots is what is keeping the stock alive.
Therefore, Tesla shareholders are disincentivized to vote against Musk if he threatens to leave because he would leave with his stock pumping lies – leading in the stock crashing.
He has a complete hold on Tesla and he is going to force shareholders to give him another ridiculous stock compensation package.
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