Wang Chuanfu: Backbone, Foresight, and Grand Vision, Supporting BYD's Great Ship

October 28, 2026, Suzhou, Wang Chuanfu accepted the highest honor of China's automobile industry—the Rao Bin Award.

On this awards stage known as the "Nobel Prize" of China's automobile industry, he looked back on the hardships BYD has come through and mentioned the achievements made today.

But in the end, he folded the storms, grievances, and glory of these twenty years into a single sentence:

"I wanted to solve a proof problem, to prove that Chinese new energy is viable, and Chinese automobiles are viable."

It was still him, the one who once shouted "Together, we make the Chinese Auto Industry", today still speaking in the same language.

(1) Backbone and Responsibility

Wang Chuanfu has a very friendly nickname, called Brother Boatman.

This nickname started as a pun, but later also symbolized his early days on the small boat of BYD, which was in turbulent times, gritting his teeth and rowing desperately.

Today, this small boat has grown into a giant ship with an annual sales volume of 4.6 million vehicles, entering the first tier of global automakers.

Wang Chuanfu has also changed from a boatman to a captain.

And between the boatman and the captain, there is more than just time.

To see why Wang Chuanfu speaks and chooses routes like this today, we must first turn the ship back, to the time when he was just a young man being repeatedly questioned at the customs.

In his early years, he did battery exports and frequently traveled to Europe and the United States. At customs, the counterparts repeatedly asked him to show return tickets, fearing he would refuse to leave, which made him very angry and felt unjust.

He said: "We Chinese people are not stupid, nor lazy, why do we not have corresponding status?"

That spirit became the strongest keel of BYD's small boat later on.

After starting car manufacturing, he insisted on changing all the physical buttons in the car to Chinese.

Others advised him, it's too earthy, it will affect sales.

But he said: "For things involving the foundation of Chinese culture, we must persist."

This persistence has continued to this day.

So BYD has product naming unique to Chinese culture, and the distinctive "Dragon Face Design" aesthetics.

He wants a Chinese car to reveal Chinese confidence from the inside out, from name to appearance, from bone structure to soul.

This is Wang Chuanfu's fiery spirit, but it goes beyond that.

In 2020, during the most serious part of the epidemic, masks became lifesaving materials.

Wang Chuanfu gave an order, more than 3,000 technicians drew more than 400 mask machine blueprints in three days, and the first equipment was built in seven days.

In less than a month, they accomplished the world's largest mass-produced mask factory.

Later in interviews, he said: "If the country has difficulties, we will manufacture."

This is Wang Chuanfu's sense of social responsibility and accountability.

(2) Foresight and Ace Card

However, a small boat becoming a big ship, a boatman becoming a captain, blood and responsibility are not enough.

A captain must look up at the sky, the wind direction, and the routes others cannot see.

At this time, we can see Wang Chuanfu's foresight.

In 2014, joint-venture brands were at their peak in the Chinese market; paying premiums for cars was the norm.

He predicted that joint-venture cars were too comfortable, and sooner or later would be beaten by Chinese automobiles.

At that time, everyone thought he was bluffing. Now facts prove he was right.

In 2015, at the BYD Fans Conference, he said that future electric vehicles would run even after the front wheel burst and was thrown away.

In 2023, DiSus-X allowed a Yangwang U9 to drive steadily with a missing wheel.

What explains him choosing routes in the fog even more clearly is the battery lifeline.

From the beginning, Wang Chuanfu targeted Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP).

Because what he calculated was not temporary parameters, but the lifeline: Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt (NCM) relies on cobalt and nickel, which are extremely scarce in China and can be choked at any time; while Lithium Iron Phosphate has independent resources and is extremely safe.

But reality quickly slapped him in the face. In those years, subsidy policies chased energy density, and the whole industry疯狂ly swung towards NCM, forcing Lithium Iron Phosphate into a corner.

To survive, BYD also compromised, and the main models switched to NCM on a large scale with the industry.

Those were the most dangerous years for BYD. By 2019, subsidies were cut, and sales slumped. Wang Chuanfu later recalled that at the time, there was only one goal: to survive.

But compromise was temporary; Wang Chuanfu did not completely stop the R&D of Lithium Iron Phosphate.

At the 2019 "Qinghai Conference", he led the team to ask a different question: Since we cannot compete on energy density in materials, let's compete on structure. Thus, the Blade Battery was born.

Why can he accomplish this? It is because BYD has always had an ace card that others do not have—Vertical Integration.

Others rely on buying to build cars; from the first day of making batteries, BYD was used to making whatever is missing themselves.

This vertical integration foundation is also the hardest ace card for BYD in later price wars.

In the second half of electrification, the routes Wang Chuanfu chose were still very "precise".

In intelligence, he did not treat intelligent driving as a premium chip for high-end cars, but turned it into a universal standard.

And in terms of energy replenishment, releasing the second-generation Blade Battery and Megawatt Flash Charging, planning to build 20,000 flash charging piles by the end of this year.

(3) Grand Vision and Open Ocean

However, the quality of a captain is ultimately not only judged by where he drives the ship alone, but also by how he treats other ships in the vast sea.

In 2023, when BYD's 5 millionth new energy vehicle rolled off the line, he placed models from thirteen partner companies in front of the big screen.

That promotional video "Together, We Make the Chinese Auto Industry" began with "This year is the 70th anniversary of China FAW's establishment", starting from the first "Jiefang" car, paying tribute one after another to FAW, Dongfeng, Changan, SAIC, GAC, Chery, Geely, Great Wall, and also paying tribute to NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto.

Later, the public opinion in the Chinese automobile market became complex, with open and hidden attacks. However, at the shareholder meeting, he said: "We are the leader, we can be bullied a bit, but we cannot bully others."

"Practicing only Wing Chun cannot make a martial arts world. Only BYD cannot make the Chinese Auto Industry."

This is Wang Chuanfu's grand vision.

Today, the Chinese automobile fleet jointly composed of various car companies with BYD as one of the flagship ships has entered the open ocean.

In the first half of 2026, BYD's overseas revenue share exceeded domestic for the first time; export sales approached 800,000 vehicles, and business covers 121 countries and regions.

In the UK, sales exceeded 50,000 in 2025, and in the first four months of 2026, it once topped the pure electric sales list; in Brazil, sales were about 110,000 in 2025, and the pure electric market share once reached 78% in February 2026; in Thailand, as of July 2026, the factory had cumulatively delivered more than 130,000 vehicles.

And the entire Chinese automobile fleet is also going further. In the first half of this year, the total export of Chinese automobiles reached 5.096 million vehicles; June even achieved a single-month export sales breakthrough of one million vehicles.

(4) Kung Fu Verdict

Back to the Rao Bin Award stage.

From the young man being questioned at customs back then to today, standing on stage as a leader of China's automobile industry.

What Wang Chuanfu wants to prove is never just how many cars BYD can sell.

He wants to prove that cars built by Chinese people can not only price themselves but also set their own rules.

He wants to prove that this fleet named "Chinese Automobile" can not only go out, but also let the whole world see, and get used to the presence of Chinese automobiles.

In the past, he became the captain of the BYD giant ship, a boatman gritting his teeth in the wind and rain.

Today, he is the flagship captain sailing the entire Chinese automobile fleet into the open ocean.