BYD Auto Co$.,$ Ltd is a Chinese privately owned automobile manufacturer and a wholly owned subsidiary of BYD Company. It was founded in January $2003,$ following BYD Company$$s acquisition of Tsinchuan Automobile Company in $2003.$ Its principal activity is the design, development, manufacture and distribution of automobiles, buses, forklifts, rechargeable batteries and trucks sold under the BYD brand. In $2008,$ BYD Auto began selling its first mass$-$produced PHEV. It also has a $50$:$50$ joint venture with Daimler AG$,$ Shenzhen BYD Daimler New Technology Co$.,$ Ltd$,$ which develops and manufactures luxury electric cars sold under the Denza brand.

BYD claims that the company name stands for $$Build Your Dream$.$ The manufacturer is also one of the key manufacturers of battery cells and has been the most aggressive among all Chinese EV makers in its push into cars that charge from the grid electricity.

BYD was China$$s top EV manufacturer in $2016$ with $100,000$ units delivered, out of a total sales of $494,000$ cars. The split between EVs and PHEVs was $50$:$50.$ In $2017$ the Chinese competitor BAIC took over the leadership in selling EVs to the Chinese market.

While BYD$$s EV sales are nearly only domestic, some of their other car models are exported to other developing countries. BYD cars are sold in Bahrain by Fakhro Motors, distributed in the Dominican Republic by Peravia Motors $(3,000$ cars serve as taxis in the capital, Santo Domingo$).$ BYD cars are also offered in Ukraine and Moldova.

The company has also expressed a desire to enter the European, Iranian and Israeli markets. BYD opened its Iranian branch under the name Karmania in $2016.$ BYD also opened its North American headquarters in Los Angeles in $2011,$ and planned to start selling EVs there in $2012,$ but this was delayed. BYD planned to hit the American streets by the end of $2018$ with the BYD E$6$ model.

In a move seen as a precursor to a US introduction, BYD hired the famous actor Leonardo DiCaprio as its global brand ambassador. He commands an enormous following in China where he is known as Little Li$.$ His Twitter China account shows followers in millions