Wang Chuanfu

The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth

by Nicolas Niarchos  · 20 Jan 2026  · 654pp  · 170,150 words

Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2019–present. Moïse Tshombe: Katangese politician who led the mineral-rich province’s secession from Congo from 1960 to 1963. Wang Chuanfu: Founder and CEO of BYD Company. M. Stanley Whittingham: Nobel Prize–winning British chemist who developed the first lithium-ion battery while working at Exxon

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’s resources themselves. And as Sony’s production of lithium-ion batteries went global, those resources would become ever more valuable. Chapter 16 Building Dreams Wang Chuanfu, the founder of BYD In February 1995, the same year that Sony introduced its powerful third-generation battery, a company called BYD began doing business

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become the world’s largest producer of electric vehicles. * * * The BYD Seal was even more extraordinary in light of where its founder had come from. Wang Chuanfu was from a rice-farming town called Wuwei, in China’s Anhui Province. Translated, Wuwei means something like “Do nothing” or “Let it be” in

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’s coastal cities from the countryside, so he had a steady supply of people willing to work for BYD. According to The Creative Wisdom of Wang Chuanfu, a business-strategy book by Li Daqian, Wang only slowly integrated machines into his company. He “invented a production pattern of ‘equipment + workers = mechanical hands

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. He separated a production line into several processes. The core process was controlled by automation, while other links were finished by laborers. In this way, Wang Chuanfu only spent millions achieving the effects on what others had spent tens of millions.” The hard work paid off. In the subsequent decades, China and

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by bringing his supply chain in-house as he created “a whole-industry chain of low-cost components,” Li explains in The Creative Wisdom of Wang Chuanfu. “At least 70% of BYD’s auto parts were produced by internal business units.” From around 2005 on, BYD made everything but tires, windshields, and

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also a churchgoer.” At the time, Katumba, a slight man, wore a thin mustache and double-breasted gray suits with wide lapels, the style that Wang Chuanfu was also sporting over in Shenzhen. He showed up one day at Jewels’s office looking for a job. Katumba was a young accountant with

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stones,” a sentiment endorsed by Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese premier who had opened China to private businesses. Deng’s selection of Shenzhen—the city where Wang Chuanfu established BYD—as the first special economic zone had epitomized this kind of experimental policy. In the case of the electric-car program, the stones

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tech for tomorrow.” Matt Hardigree, who wrote for the auto site Jalopnik, was the only journalist who decided to stick around after the press conference. Wang Chuanfu, BYD’s chairman, invited Hardigree to hop into his new car. Technically, the journalist would write, it was the first-ever “test drive” of a

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Huayou Cobalt, Chen, a well-built man with a squared-off chin, “had to sell bean sprout in the bazaar every day before dawn.” Like Wang Chuanfu and Robin Zeng, Chen was born into rural poverty in China’s Zhejiang Province, although his rags-to-riches story doesn’t involve success at

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substantially involved in Indonesian mining. His company, Tsingshan, was a Chinese success story on par with Chen Xuehua’s Huayou, Robin Zeng’s CATL, and Wang Chuanfu’s BYD. In fact, he and Chen were close, and they invested in the Huayue nickel plant together. Xiang was from the southeastern province of

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, and less geostrategically complex than their cobalt-containing cousins. In China, their low cost and high safety specs were praised by CEOs like BYD’s Wang Chuanfu. The scientists in Goodenough’s labs had successfully read the tea leaves. LFP cathodes produced less power than their high-powered cobalt- and nickel-containing

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consulting firm Accenture, lamented at a 2023 industry gathering in Stuttgart. By 2024, the most prominent leap in LFP battery technology had been made by Wang Chuanfu’s giant car-and-battery company, BYD, which had created a new form of battery. When BYD announced its innovation, which it called Blade, on

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TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT Wuwei means something: I am indebted to the Medium writer Guangxizhang and Kevin Xu on Substack for their overviews on Wang Chuanfu’s life; both gave me a good basis from which to conduct further research. See Guangxizhang, “The Legendary Life of

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Wang Chuanfu, the Founder of China’s Trillion-Dollar Car Company, Was Highly Respected by Munger Buffett,” Medium, July 20, 2013, medium.com/@guangxizhang1207/the-legendary-life-of-wang-chuanfu-the-founder-of-chinas-trillion-dollar-car-company-was-highly-76433dbe4be5; and

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Kevin Xu, “Wang Chuanfu: A Name Everyone in the West Should Know,” Interconnected, February 8, 2024, interconnect.substack.com/p

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/wang-chuanfu-a-name-everyone-in-the. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT The tune of his upbringing: Around 790 million people lived

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, April 13, 2009, money.cnn.com/2009/04/13/technology/gunther_electric.fortune/. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT “He renounced a comfortable”: Li Daqian, Wang Chuanfu: Créateur Innovant (Infini Découverte, 2013), 12. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT Wang didn’t even understand: “观察│比亚迪：从电池作坊到新能源汽车巨头 多次跨界进军新领域” [BYD: From a Battery Workshop to a New

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’s Biggest Threat,” Wall Street Journal, October 4, 2023. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT “invented a production pattern”: Li Daqian, The Creative Wisdom of Wang Chuanfu, trans. Denis Mair (China Intercontinental Press, 2013), 19. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT the firm was able to: Li

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, Wang Chuanfu, 22. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT “So we started to invest”: Robert S. Huckman and Alan D. MacCormack, “BYD Company, Ltd.,” Harvard Business School

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the New Lithium Economy (Hill and Wang, 2011), 59. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT In Wang’s conception of BYD: Li, Creative Wisdom of Wang Chuanfu, 38. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT The company had grown yearly: 2002 Annual Report (BYD Company Ltd., 2003), 5–6. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE

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to the limited oil”: Interim Report (BYD Inc., June 2003), 4. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT “a whole-industry chain”: Li, Creative Wisdom of Wang Chuanfu, 22–23. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT It was perhaps inevitable: Li, 27. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT Part of Wang’s strategy

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.au/news/byd-to-introduce-new-second-gen-1000km-battery-technology/. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT Bloomberg mused that: Danny Lee, “Why BYD’s Wang Chuanfu Could Be China’s Version of Henry Ford,” Bloomberg, June 24, 2024, bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-24/byd-s

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-wang-chuanfu-china-s-henry-ford. GO TO NOTE REFERENCE IN TEXT “That SUV traveled”: “Gemini: 608 Miles on a Single Charge,” Our Next Energy (ONE), accessed

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. Brookings Institution, 1965. LeVine, Steve. The Powerhouse: Inside the Invention of a Battery to Save the World. Viking, 2015. Li, Daqian. The Creative Wisdom of Wang Chuanfu. Translated by Denis Mair. China Intercontinental Press, 2013. Lin Neo, Mei, and Peter A. Todd. “Conservation Status Reassessment of Giant Clams (Mollusca: Bivalvia: Tridacninae) in

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, 290 Biden, Joe, 9, 283, 290 electric vehicles and, 318 on Inflation Reduction Act, 296 Tshisekedi Tshilombo and, 300 Big Power Nickel-Hydrogen Battery Co., Wang Chuanfu at, 105–6 Big Vegetables, 56, 86, 124 birth defects, 20 black mass, 359 Blade (battery), 313–14 BMW, 315 Boeing, 96–97 Böhm, Richard

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, 247, 294, 305 battery technology at, 313 lithium-ion batteries, 110 Musk on, 193 sales of, 314 stock prices of, 110–11 success of, 192 Wang Chuanfu founding, 106 BYD Explorer, 314 BYD Seal, 103–4 C Cadillac, 61 Call2Recycle, 76, 360, 371 Canada, 8–9 Canary Islands, 309 Canavera, Mark, 19

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, 30–31 corruption, 275–78 Council on Foreign Relations, 196 Covert, Bryce, 145 COVID-19 pandemic, 284, 347 inflation following, 296 The Creative Wisdom of Wang Chuanfu (Li Daqian), 107, 112 CREC. See China Railway Group Ltd. creuseurs, 153, 239 accidents affecting, 334 at CDM, 239–40 Cime Jinga on, 377–78

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Volt (car), 183–84, 305 Volta, Alessandro, 60, 178 Von Batten, Karl, 4 W Waldorf-Astoria, 135 Wallace, Mike, 94–95 Wan Gang, 190–91 Wang Chuanfu, xiii, 103, 104, 109, 113, 193, 203, 247, 305 at Big Power, 105–6 BYD founding by, 106 company mantras, 112 Wang Yuchun, 204–5

Aerotropolis

by John D. Kasarda and Greg Lindsay  · 2 Jan 2009  · 603pp  · 182,781 words

. Warren Buffett likes the car so much he bought a tenth of BYD for $230 million. But with a little luck, its boyish-looking chairman Wang Chuanfu may go down in history as China’s answer to Steve Jobs. He’s taking the wheel of the auto industry the same way Apple

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aerial commuters is taken from “The Ruse of the Creative Class” (The American Prospect, January/February 2010). James Fallows’s interview with BYD’s chairman, Wang Chuanfu, ran in “China’s Way Forward” (The Atlantic, April 2009). The projections on the global growth of auto ownership are from “The Best Years of

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, 293–94 Visteon, 199–201 Visteon Village, 199, 200–201, 202 von Klemperer, Jamie, 355, 357 Walmart, sustainability index of, 240–41 Walsh, Willie, 16 Wang Chuanfu, 204 Wanisubut, Suwat, 259–62, 263 Wanxiang Group, 206 Washington, D.C., 355 Washington National Airport, 38–39 Washtenaw County, Mich., 188 water, recycling of

The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World

by Daniel Yergin  · 14 May 2011  · 1,373pp  · 300,577 words

meeting (1985) Vilsack, Tom Vogtle nuclear power plant Volkswagen Volvo Vostok Voyages dan les Alpes (Sassure) Wagoner, Rick Wall Street Walton, John T. Walton, Sam Wang, Chuanfu Wang Jinxi (Iron Man) Washington, George Washington Energy Conference (1974) water climate change and fraccing and for nuclear reactors produced see also hydropower watermills Watt

The Great Race: The Global Quest for the Car of the Future

by Levi Tillemann  · 20 Jan 2015  · 431pp  · 107,868 words

in the concern. BYD’s rise was explosive, improbable, and cloaked in mystery. One version of the story goes something like this: BYD’s founder, Wang Chuanfu, was the son of poor farmers who died when he was a child. As a result, Wang was raised by an older brother (and perhaps

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–96, 98–101, 113 return to China of, 102–3, 113 as sea turtle, 112–13 and Shanghai World Expo (2010), 15–16, 17, 18 Wang Chuanfu, 229–30, 231 Wang Daheng, 113 Wang Dazhong, 227 Wang Ganchang, 113 Wanxiang Group, 178 Wen Jiabao, 199 Who Killed the Electric Car? (documentary), 90

Insane Mode: How Elon Musk's Tesla Sparked an Electric Revolution to End the Age of Oil

by Hamish McKenzie  · 30 Sep 2017  · 307pp  · 90,634 words

and factories in the United States, Canada, Japan, Korea, India, Mexico, and Europe. Overall, the company brought in about $11 billion in revenue in 2015. Wang Chuanfu, an engineer and chemist, cofounded BYD in 1995 at the age of twenty-nine with $300,000 in start-up capital he had raised from

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(Google), 271 Virginia Tech, 269 Volkswagen, 161, 167–170, 185, 266–267 Volvo, 185, 270, 271 von Holzhausen, Franz, 76–77, 121 Walker, Jarrett, 34 Wang Chuanfu, 130, 133 Wang Jing, 262–263 Wangjing (China), development in, 144 Wanxiang Group, 71 Warrior, Padmasree, 102 Waymo, 110 Waymo (Google), 266, 271 Weber, Thomas

How Asia Works

by Joe Studwell  · 1 Jul 2013  · 868pp  · 147,152 words

and American mobile phone companies which wanted to lower costs by diversifying away from battery producers in north-east Asia. The company’s entrepreneurial boss, Wang Chuanfu, then squeezed enough cash out of a high-volume, low-margin battery business to move into car making. In the 2000s, BYD reverse-engineered Japanese

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, 281n62 Volvo 253 VW 302n129 Wada, Hiroo 69 Wade, Robert 85, 95, 103, 196 Wahaha 232 Wain, Barry 303n134 Wan Azmi Wan Hamzah 138, 308n170 Wang Chuanfu 252 Wang Yung-ching 66 Wanxiang 232 Washington Consensus xiv, 172–3, 174, 217, 274n3 Wealth of Nations, The (Smith) 290–1n19 West Germany 92

Earth Wars: The Battle for Global Resources

by Geoff Hiscock  · 23 Apr 2012  · 363pp  · 101,082 words

industry PV leader Trina Solar; Miao Liansheng of Yingli Green Energy; Lu Tingxiu, chairman of China Sunergy; Li Xianshou of solar wafer maker ReneSola; and Wang Chuanfu and Lu Xiangyang, co-founders of battery and electric car maker BYD Co. Since 2008, Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy has held a 10 percent

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Utica shale field Uzbekistan Vale Vasudeva, Sudhir Vattenfall Vedanta Resources Vekselberg. Viktor Venezuela Vestas Vietnam Vitol Group Volga Resources Volga River Voser, Peter Walsh, Sam Wang Chuanfu Watson, John Wen Jiabao Westinghouse Electric Wilkes, Justin Wind power Woodside Petroleum World Bank World Coal Association World Food Program World Health Organization World Nuclear

The Misfit Economy: Lessons in Creativity From Pirates, Hackers, Gangsters and Other Informal Entrepreneurs

by Alexa Clay and Kyra Maya Phillips  · 23 Jun 2015  · 210pp  · 56,667 words

legitimate automobile manufacturers. In 2013, BYD became the tenth largest automobile brand, selling more than half a million passenger cars in China.1 Its owner, Wang Chuanfu, is now among the world’s five hundred richest people, according to Forbes. Within the Misfit Economy, the copying strategies employed by shanzhai innovation are

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interruptors, 131–32, 135 Virgin (record store), 31 Virgin Records, 31, 64 Visa, 85 Walden Pond, 185 Wallace, Alfred Russel, 87 Wall Street Journal, 36 Wang Chuanfu, 79 Water Margin (Shuihu Zhuan), 77 Watson, James, 86 Watt, James, 89 Weiler, Lance, 32–34 Weinreich, Andrew, 103–5 Wells, H. G., 148 We