Key facts
- Founded
- 1995
- Founded by
- Wang Chuanfu, Lu Xiangyang
- Country
- China
- Headquarters
- Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
- Legal name
- BYD Company Limited
- Famous models
- Han, Tang, Song, Seal, Dolphin
- Slogan
- “Build Your Dreams”
- Website
- www.byd.com/en
What does BYD stand for?
BYD stands for Build Your Dreams. That is the official reading today, but the letters came first: BYD began as the initials of the company’s Chinese name, Biyadi, and the English phrase was matched to them years later. So the BYD full form is Build Your Dreams, and the BYD car full form is the same, while the company’s full name is BYD Company Limited. Wang Chuanfu founded it in Shenzhen, and its car-making arm is BYD Auto.
| Term | Answer |
|---|---|
| Full form | Build Your Dreams (official slogan since 2008) |
| Full name | BYD Company Limited |
| Car company | BYD Auto |
| Chinese name | 比亚迪 (Bǐyàdí) |
BYD in Chinese: 比亚迪 (Bǐyàdí)
In Chinese, BYD is 比亚迪 (Bǐyàdí), and the three Latin letters are its Hanyu Pinyin initials: B for Bǐ, Y for yà and D for dí. The car company is 比亚迪汽车 (Bǐyàdí Qìchē). English speakers say the letters one by one, B-Y-D, while in Mandarin the name is said as Bǐyàdí.
According to Chinese reports, the firm was first known as Yadi Electronics (亚迪电子), after Yadi Road in Dapeng, Shenzhen, and the character 比 (Bǐ) was added when the name was registered. Wang Chuanfu gave his own account in April 2022. Two-character names were hard to register in Shenzhen, and five names the team wanted were already taken, so it picked an unusual three-character name that passed registration easily. He added that back then nobody knew whether the company would survive.
BYD meaning: is “Build Your Dreams” the original?
No. When the name was chosen, the letters BYD did not stand for any English phrase. Wang Chuanfu explained at BYD’s annual-results briefing on April 1, 2022, that product packaging needed a name in Latin letters, so the company used the pinyin initials. Only later did people start reading them as Build Your Dreams.
The phrase is a backronym, an English slogan fitted to letters that already existed. BYD began using it when it took part in the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January 2008, its first appearance at that show. The Chinese version of the slogan is 成就梦想. So what does BYD stand for today? Officially, Build Your Dreams, by adoption rather than origin. “Beyond Your Dreams,” which turns up online, is a misquote.
What does the BYD logo mean?
In short, the BYD logo meaning is the company name: every version is built from the letters B, Y and D, with no animal or pictorial symbol. The only meaning BYD has given for a logo’s colors applies to its first car badge, whose blue and white stood for sky and clouds.
Later versions swapped the black, blue and white of 2003 for red and white. BYD has not published a meaning for the red. For the 2021 frameless car logo, the company said the open design “opens closed spaces.” For the rounded 2022 group logo, BYD said the softer letters give the brand a more open, approachable look.
| Element | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|
| The letters B, Y, D | Pinyin initials of Bǐyàdí, read today as Build Your Dreams | Official (Wang Chuanfu) |
| Blue and white of the 2003 badge | Blue sky and white clouds | Official |
| Red | No stated meaning | None published |
| Open letters with no frame (2021) | A design that “opens closed spaces” | Official, quoted by ChinaPEV |
| Rounded corners (2022 Group logo) | A more open, approachable brand | Official, reported by CnEVPost |
BYD logo history: every version since 2003
The BYD logo on cars has had four versions since 2003, which means the badge changed three times: around 2007, on January 1, 2021, and on February 17, 2022. The company started in 1995 as a battery maker in Shenzhen, China, and moved into cars in January 2003, when it formed BYD Auto.
| Version | Used on cars | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| Blue-and-white oval | January 2003 to about 2007 | First car badge: black ring, blue-over-white center, white letters on the lower arc |
| Red oval | About 2007 to 2020 | The parent company’s logo moved onto the cars: red ring, sharp red letters |
| Frameless wordmark | January 1, 2021, to February 17, 2022 | Oval removed; B and D lose their left uprights |
| Slimmer frameless wordmark | February 17, 2022, to today | Same letters, slightly narrower |
2003 to about 2007: the blue-and-white oval
The first logo BYD put on its cars, in 2003, was a horizontal oval with a thick black outer ring. Inside sat a smaller ellipse split light blue over white, and the letters B Y D ran in white along the lower arc of the black ring. BYD says the two colors stand for blue sky and white clouds.
This old BYD logo was widely compared to the BMW roundel. BYD never said whether that was the reason it was replaced. The F3 sedan, launched in 2005, still wore the blue-and-white badge.
About 2007 to 2020: the red oval
Around 2007, the BYD logo on cars switched to the parent company’s red oval, a change that came with the BYD F1, later renamed F0. Some logo databases date the red-oval design itself to December 2005.
The design is a single red elliptical outline on white with bold, square-cut red BYD letters. Notches and diagonal cuts break up the letters: the B has a gap at its lower left, and the Y has a detached left arm. On cars it ran from about 2007 until the end of 2020, making it the longest-used car badge BYD has had, and it stayed the corporate logo until February 17, 2022.
2021: the frameless wordmark
On January 1, 2021, BYD Auto dropped the oval from its domestic passenger cars and adopted a frameless wordmark. Other BYD businesses kept the red oval.
The letters were opened up. The B became three stacked bars with no left upright, so it reads a little like a 3. The Y turned into an open cup on an offset stem, and the D became an open bracket, again without a left upright. The result was very wide and low. This version of the BYD logo lasted about 13 months.
2022 to today: the current BYD car logo
The current BYD car logo is a slightly slimmer version of the 2021 design, revealed on February 17, 2022, the same day as the new group logo. The construction did not change: there is still no frame, and the B and D still have no left uprights. Only the overall width shrank. CnEVPost noted that the new BYD logo was almost impossible to tell from the previous one, except that it looked slimmer.
On the cars it appears as chrome letters with no oval around them. In digital and print use it is usually red. This is still the badge on BYD cars today.
2017 to 2023: the Build Your Dreams badge
BYD has used Build Your Dreams as a slogan since 2008, and for a few years it also used the phrase as a badge. Starting with the second-generation Tang, revealed in late 2017, the tailgate spelled out “Build Your Dreams” in place of the oval logo. On those cars the full form of BYD sat where the emblem would normally go.
In September 2023, after customer feedback, BYD replaced the script with a plain three-letter BYD badge on export models such as the Atto 3, Seal and Dolphin, in markets including Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the UK. The script was a way of using the slogan on the car, not a separate version of the BYD logo.
Does BYD have two logos?
Yes. BYD cars wear the frameless BYD wordmark, while the company itself uses a red oval known as the BYD Group logo. Both current versions date from February 17, 2022. The logo at the top of this page, and in its PNG download, is the car badge.
| Logo | Looks like | Used on | Since |
|---|---|---|---|
| BYD car badge | Open B-Y-D letters, no frame, red or chrome | BYD-brand cars | January 1, 2021 (slimmer since February 17, 2022) |
| BYD Group logo | Red oval ring with closed, rounded BYD letters | The group’s corporate identity | February 17, 2022 |
| Yangwang logo | A mark based on the character 电 | Yangwang cars | December 2022 |
The 2022 BYD Group logo
The group logo, introduced in Shenzhen on February 17, 2022, keeps the red ellipse of the old parent logo but redraws the letters. The B, Y and D stay closed, with full left uprights, but the sharp cuts of the earlier design gave way to rounded corners, which CnEVPost described as a “mathematical” aesthetic. This is the corporate logo, not the badge on the cars. Because it still has an oval, many logo sites show it as the current BYD car logo, which it is not.
BYD Auto also sells cars under the Denza, Yangwang, Fangchengbao and Linghui brands. Yangwang’s logo, introduced in December 2022, is inspired by the oracle-bone script form of 电, the Chinese character for electricity.
BYD logo colors and font
The BYD logo is red on screens and in print, and chrome on the cars. BYD has not published an official hex code, and logo sites give slightly different values. The lettering is custom-drawn rather than set in a public typeface, so there is no BYD font to download.
- Red: a bright red close to #E60012. Other sources quote #E60009 or #D30E19, and none of the three is official.
- Chrome: the finish of the frameless letters on current BYD cars.
- Black, light blue and white: the palette of the 2003 badge, before red took over.
BYD logo PNG and black-and-white versions
The BYD logo PNG on this page is the 2022 BYD Auto wordmark in red on a transparent background, the same design BYD cars carry today. Use the Download logo button under the main image at the top of the page to save it at 1600 × 341 pixels.
- Black and white: the mark is flat, with no gradients or shading, so the BYD logo in black and white is the same shape filled with one color.
- BYD emblem on the car: the physical badge is chrome letters with no frame, not the red oval.
- Group logo: the red oval shown above is the corporate logo and is not part of the download.
Frequently asked questions
Is BYD bigger than Tesla?
By electric car sales, yes. In 2025 BYD overtook Tesla to become the world's largest electric carmaker. In 2023 it was already China's top-selling car brand, ahead of Volkswagen. That makes BYD the bigger electric carmaker by volume, although being bigger is not the same as being better.
Who owns BYD?
BYD Company Limited is a public company whose shares trade in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, so it has many shareholders. It was founded by Wang Chuanfu with his cousin Lu Xiangyang. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, through MidAmerican Energy, bought about 9.9% in September 2008 for roughly US$230 million, an investment rather than a takeover.
Is BYD a Chinese company?
Yes. BYD is a Chinese company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, the city where it was founded as a battery maker. Its car subsidiary, BYD Auto, also lists Xi'an in Shaanxi province as a base, because that is where the carmaker it bought in 2003 was located. BYD Company owns about 99% of BYD Auto.
When was BYD founded?
BYD was formally established on February 10, 1995, as Shenzhen BYD Battery Company Limited, and took the name BYD Company Limited in 2002. The company also marks November 18, 1994, the day its founding team first gathered, which is why it celebrated its 30th anniversary in November 2024.
When did BYD start making cars?
BYD moved into cars in January 2003 by buying a 77% stake in Xi'an Qinchuan Automobile from the state defense group Norinco for HK$269 million. The business became BYD Auto. Until then BYD had been a maker of rechargeable batteries, the business it was founded on in Shenzhen in 1995.
What was BYD's first electric car?
BYD's first plug-in hybrid was the F3DM, launched in 2008 as an electrified version of its F3 sedan. Its first fully electric car, the battery-powered e6, followed in 2009. BYD still builds both kinds of car, plug-in hybrids and fully electric models, across its range.
What cars does BYD make?
BYD groups most of its passenger cars into two series. The Dynasty series uses names of Chinese dynasties, such as Han, Tang, Qin, Song and Yuan. The Ocean series uses sea-themed names, including Dolphin, Seal and Seagull.
What is BYD's stock symbol?
BYD Company has two main listings. Its Hong Kong shares trade under the code 1211 (1211.HK), and its Shenzhen shares trade under 002594 (002594.SZ). Both codes refer to the same parent company, BYD Company Limited, which owns the car business, BYD Auto, and its other operations.
