BYD Invests in Zhuoyu Technology Under DJI

On December 5th, Zhuoyu Technology underwent a change in its business registration, adding three new shareholders including Shenzhen BYD Semiconductor Materials Co., Ltd., holding 3.9467%, 1.8897%, and 1.184% of the shares respectively, with the registered capital increasing to approximately RMB 73.122 million. Originally part of DJI’s automotive division, Zhuoyu Technology now focuses on pure visual intelligent driving solutions and has partnered with multiple car manufacturers. BYD’s investment this time aims to strengthen its layout in intelligent driving, planning to offer advanced driver assistance systems as optional equipment for vehicles priced above RMB 200,000 and make them standard for vehicles priced above RMB 300,000 in the future. Chairman Wang Chuanfu emphasized investment in intelligence technology; currently BYD is attempting to equip cars priced below RMB100,000 with advanced driver assistance systems such as the Baojun Euphoria Plus 2025 model which relies on economies of scale production and cost control measures for implementation. Industry experts believe that despite facing cost challenges, BYD is likely to achieve its goals through economies of scale and self-developed technologies.

Public information shows that Zhuoyu Technology, formerly the car business unit of DJI, is a high-tech enterprise specializing in pure visual intelligent driving solutions. In 2023, Zhuoyu Technology was spun off from DJI and became independent, officially adopting ‘Zhuoyu’ as its business brand in June 2024. As of now, Zhuoyu Technology has established cooperation relationships with Volkswagen, SAIC-GM-Wuling, Chery Automobile, FAW Group and other automotive companies.

The Shenzhen BYD Createc Materials Co., Ltd., which invested in Zhuoyu Technology this time, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BYD. Tianyancha shows that Shenzhen BYD Createc Materials Co., Ltd. was established in 2007 and its main business activities include research and development, production and sales of battery molds; import and export of goods and technologies (excluding import distribution), etc.

In the eyes of the outside world, BYD’s investment in Zhuoyu Technology this time is a major move to strengthen its layout in the field of intelligent driving. In fact, as early as the “2024 BYD Dream Day” conference held in January this year, Wang Chuanfu, Chairman and President of BYD, had signaled to the outside world that BYD would start reinvesting in the smart race track.

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“BYD attaches great importance to intelligent driving and has established a self-developed full-stack intelligent driving research and development system. The entire intelligent driving team has 4,000 engineers, with over 1,000 responsible for algorithms and hardware parts and over 3,000 responsible for software parts.” At that time, Wang Chuanfu stated that in the future, BYD models priced above 200 thousand yuan will offer advanced optional intelligent driving features while models priced above 300 thousand yuan will achieve comprehensive standard configuration.

At the BYD Ocean three-year anniversary and first user festival held on November 1st , Zhang Zhuo , General Manager of BYD Ocean Online Sales Business Unit revealed that as smart driving technology continues to mature , Ocean Network aims to install smart driving systems on seagulls , truly achieving technological equality.

Official information shows that the Seagull is the first A00-class car under the Ocean Network, with a price range of 73,800 to 89,800 yuan. This also means that BYD’s intelligent driving system will be equipped on entry-level models priced below 100,000 yuan.

It is worth mentioning that Zhuoyu Technology, in which BYD has newly invested, had already implemented advanced intelligent driving technology on models priced below 100,000 yuan as early as November this year. On November 15th, the Baojun Yueye Plus 2025 model with standard Lingmou Intelligent Driving 2.0 Max was launched at an official guide price of 103,800 yuan.

For the reason why advanced intelligent driving can be equipped on Baojun brand models, Han Dehong, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Deputy General Manager of SAIC-GM-Wuling, explained that this is mainly due to the scale of products under SAIC-GM-Wuling and Zoyte Technologies.

Yang Weibin, an expert in new energy vehicles and power batteries, said in an interview with reporters that under the current supply chain pricing system, there are challenges to equip L2 level autonomous driving on a 100,000 yuan model. The prices of complete vehicles and intelligent driving components need to further decrease.

A university professor who preferred not to be named told reporters: “Currently, for models below 300,000 yuan equipped with NOA (Navigation on Autopilot), the Bill of Materials cost must be controlled below 8,000 yuan; for 150 thousand-yuan models it must be controlled below 5,000 yuan; while for 100 thousand-yuan models it must be controlled below 3,000 yuan.” The professor mentioned that currently costs for high computing power AI chips and LiDAR remain high. For NOA systems with high computing power and LiDAR technology included in them would have a Bill of Materials cost ranging from 25-30 thousand yuan.

However Ji Xuehong , Director and Professor at Northern Industrial University’s Automotive Industry Innovation Research Center stated that due to BYD’s product lineup having achieved economies of scale along with full-stack self-research capabilities could make equipping intelligent driving systems on a $10k car possible.

Zhu Xichan , a professor at Tongji University’s School of Automotive Studies told reporters that as the automotive industry enters into its second half towards intelligence competition will primarily focus on autonomous driving technologies.