BYD has a big move again! It will acquire a 40% stake in the parent company of Mercedes-Benz and issue a new car next year

On the evening of December 24, BYD released two blockbuster news in succession, once again grabbing the headlines of major auto media. Following the announcement of plans to increase the capital of the joint venture company Denza by 1 billion yuan with Daimler of Germany, the two sides signed an equity transfer agreement for Denza, which is scheduled to be completed in mid-2022. Upon completion of the transfer, BYD and Daimler will hold 90% and 10% of Denza's shares, respectively. After becoming the largest shareholder, BYD will give more support to Denza in operation to promote its development.

In 2010, Shenzhen BYD Daimler New Technology Co., Ltd. was formally established, and the shareholding ratio of BYD and Daimler was 50:50, and the Denza brand came into being, becoming China's first Sino-foreign joint venture focusing on new energy vehicles.

Although it started very early, the Chinese and foreign shareholders formed an excellent resource complementarity (BYD provided new energy vehicle technology, Daimler led the product design), and at that time, it was widely believed that the Denza brand had the hope of leading Chinese auto brands into a new era. However, contrary to expectations, excessive product pricing and the imperfect supporting facilities of the domestic new energy automobile industry have led to depressing difficulties in recent years. Its only model on sale, the Denza X, has almost no presence in the 300,000-class pure/plug-in hybrid SUV segment.

The capital increase can be described as a loud and clear, and the shareholders have made their position clear that they have not given up the momentum. After 11 years of readjusting the joint venture share ratio, BYD, which is already the market value of Chinese automobile companies, has not only made rapid progress in the technology of new energy vehicles and three electrics, but also made up for the design shortcomings that had been criticized. After becoming the major shareholder of Denza, it is bound to reduce many obstacles in communication and coordination with foreign partners, thereby greatly improving the efficiency of product research and development and launching new models that are more in line with the actual needs of Chinese consumers.