CT scan reveals BYD’s revolutionary EV technology—or does it?

Chinese automaker BYD has the titans of the global auto industry sweating like a dashboard AC vent on a hot day. The company, which sells only “new energy” vehicles (EVs and PHEVs), delivered 4.6 million units in 2025, making it the world’s largest EV manufacturer by volume, and dethroning the previous US-based record holder.

What sort of revolutionary technology has enabled BYD to humble the world’s most iconic automakers, and to cause auto journalists to gush with praise? To find out, engineering firm Lumafield performed CT scans of four components from BYD’s vehicles: a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cell, a window switch panel, a portable EV charger and a key fob.

Loyal Charged readers will remember a series of teardowns of Tesla vehicles, way back in the early 2020s, that revealed a number of technological and manufacturing innovations. However, we were surprised to learn that Lumafield found no game-changing technology. Rather, the scans “reveal as much about the company as they do about what’s inside the parts.”

Lumafield reports that BYD manufactures roughly 75% of the components in its own vehicles. “Batteries, motors, inverters, onboard chargers, and much of the electronics come from FinDreams, BYD’s in-house supplier network, rather than from the Bosch, Valeo and Denso supply chains that most Western automakers depend on. The ships carrying finished cars to Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East also belong to BYD. BYD’s system runs all the way from the lithium mine to the port.”

Like most Chinese automakers, BYD favors LFP battery chemistries, which tend to offer less energy density than nickel-based chemistries, but cost less, last longer, and present fewer supply chain problems. Unlike just about every other automaker, BYD designs and manufactures its own cells.

Lumafield’s CT scan of a BYD prismatic cell reveals an efficient design, various safety mechanisms, and indicators of good process control, but nothing that looks like an industry-shattering technological advance. (Engineers and battery designers will want to read Lumafield’s detailed description of its findings.)

Scans of a window switch panel, a portable AC charger and a key fob reveal a similar pattern: excellent design and evidence of cutting-edge, efficient manufacturing processes, but no jaw-dropping revelations. “None of these components is particularly extraordinary in isolation,” Lumafield reports. “The battery cell is a compact prismatic that any number of manufacturers produce. The window switch panel uses commodity tact switches and a standard automotive bus protocol. The charger is a safety device wrapped around conventional power electronics. What’s worth paying attention to is the system that produced them: every part designed in-house, manufactured within BYD’s own supply network, shipped on BYD’s own vessels. Reducing suppliers and margin layers to a minimum yields faster iteration, tighter control and lower costs at every layer of the stack.”

This reminds us of comments we heard from John Harris, CEO of Harbinger Motors. Over the past few years, other commercial EV startups have dropped like fruit flies, but Harbinger has a solid order book, and is expanding into new product segments. Harris describes vertical integration as one of the keys to Harbinger’s success. “The advantage comes down to the right supply chain,” Harris told Charged. Other truck-makers “stack up layers and layers of margin, and that’s where you get into the three- and four-tier-deep supply chains that have become common in automotive. That massively inflates the cost that gets passed along to the buyer.”

Source: Lumafield