In the last couple years, we witnessed a major shift from standard internal combustion vehicles to electric cars. Many Chinese car companies are working hard in order to turn the EV dream into reality.
China is a huge market with endless possibilities and there are many car companies that specialize in this field. Chinese people simply love electric cars and that’s why the Chinese market is one of the best in the world in terms of adopting EVs.
Two of these companies that are big players include BYD and Geely. These two manufacturers make millions of cars and invest heavily into technologies connected to EVs.
So, this is why we feel the need to compare these two companies in many key aspects. These aspects include the innovation, performance, self-driving, model lineup, as well as the pricing. So, without further ado, let’s get started!
Technological Innovation
Technological innovation is an area where every major manufacturer should perform really well. One of the main characteristics of major manufacturers is the ability to produce the components they use in their EVs. So, how do these manufacturers perform in this area?
Let’s start with BYD. BYD is a company that was known for their batteries much before they became an EV manufacturer.
It was in 2003 when this company bought a small car manufacturer from Norinco, China. Then the company worked hard and introduced new models in the upcoming years.
Since BYD made its own batteries, their primary market was always plug-in hybrid vehicles. BYD specialized in this field over the years.
Nowadays, the batteries, as well as the powertrains are all made by BYD in-house. And this is what makes BYD so great.
On top of that, recently BYD introduced a new approach to battery design. We are talking here about the Blade Battery. So, what is the Blade Battery?
The Blade Battery is a battery where individual cells are stacked into arrays, instead of using modules like most competitors do.
This reduces the cost to manufacture the battery, reduces the weight of the battery, and most importantly, it makes the battery more energy dense.
Overall, with these innovations, it is very difficult to compete with BYD these days. This company has it all. But how Geely performs?
Well, Geely is a very large manufacturer from China. This is a privately owned company that has many different brands.
Some of which include Volvo, Polestar, Zeekr, Lotus, Geometry, and Lynk & Co.
Unlike BYD, Geely is not investing heavily into the know-how but is primarily outsourcing technologies from other manufacturers.
They outsource batteries from CATL, they collaborate on autonomous driving with Mobileye and Waymo.
While the development of platforms and powertrains is all done in-house by Geely.
Overall, Geely mostly relies on suppliers compared to BYD, a company that is building most of their EVs by themselves. BYD is one of the rare companies that is manufacturing the batteries in-house.
Performance and Driving Experience
One of the key factors that make people buy an EV is definitely the performance and comfort that these vehicles deliver. These days everyone expects blazing fast acceleration and a thrilling experience. So, how do these brands perform in this area?
Well, both BYD and Geely have a lot to offer to the buyer. BYD has models that appeal to everyone.
BYD has some high-performance models like the BYD Seal, a model that can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in under 3.8 seconds. And also premium luxury sedans like the BYD Han.
The BYD Han is probably the pinnacle when it comes to personal luxury and this model is basically on par with Mercedes Benz and BMW.
Geely on the other hand through its Geely Galaxy brands that specializes in EVs is bringing some really cool models.
These include the Galaxy L6, Galaxy L8, and Galaxy E8. But the brand that Geely owns that exceeds in the area of performance and driving experience is Zeekr.
Zeekr is a one of a kind brand that focuses on personal luxury and performance. They offer some of the coolest EVs on the road.
For example, the Zeekr 001 FR, a personal luxury car that delivers an incredible range of 1,000 km and incredible acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in 2 seconds!
Environmental Impact and Sustainability
One of the main goals for each company that makes electric cars is definitely the reduction of the environmental impact. This is probably the main area where both BYD and Geely focus on the most.
Both companies are trying hard to achieve sustainability. So, what is sustainability, what does this term mean?
Well, this means that these companies want to become self-sufficient and minimize the carbon footprint when it comes to vehicle production, as well as the carbon footprint of these vehicles on the roads.
They do so by investing heavily in green energy sources. Both BYD and Geely are using green energy. Green energy is the energy that is collected from solar, wind, or hydro.
This way these companies manage to reduce their carbon footprint to minimum when it comes to their production facilities.
On top of that, these companies are also working with suppliers that meet all the environmental standards. This means that they don’t buy components from manufacturers that exploit and ruin the environment.
This way, they make sure that the effect is much more thorough and all of the parts of the supply chain are working hard to meet all these standards and reduce the carbon footprint to the minimum.
Market Presence and Global Reach
What makes a car company great is the presence that this company has across the world. If you take a look at most of the top car companies on a global scale, all of them have presence in almost every country across the world.
So, is this the case with BYD and Geely? Well, we can say that Geely is an older company and has a larger footprint than BYD. But BYD is rapidly developing and starts to become more and more present in new markets.
What makes Geely to have a competitive edge over BYD is Volvo. Volvo is owned by Geely, although not a very large company, Volvo is a western brand.
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So, this means that Geely can sell these cars in the western world for a premium and profit on these vehicles more compared to BYD, a brand that is relatively unknown on a global scale.
As you can see, this is only one of the brands, other brands include Polestar and Lotus. Two other brands that sell some very expensive vehicles as well.
That’s why we can say that Geely has a larger global reach compared to BYD. Although BYD sells more cars in China.
In addition to these brands, Geely also owns plenty of other brands in China. These brands include Zeekr, Geometry, Galaxy, Lynk & Co, and Livan.
So, overall, Geely has a lot more diversity in their lineup compared to BYD.
Model Lineup and Innovation
A strong model lineup is another highly important characteristic of the industry giants. A highly capable brand makes everyone happy and offers an EV for everybody. So, what do BYD and Geely offer?
Well, BYD has a very strong lineup of plug-in hybrids and EVs. But we are primarily focused on the electric cars that BYD offers at the moment.
The entry level EVs that BYD sells are the BYD Seagull and the BYD Dolphin. These two models are the smallest and cheapest.
Then, you have the BYD QIN, a compact sedan, the BYD Seal, a midsize sedan, and the BYD Han, a full-size luxury sedan.
There are also three SUVs in the BYD lineup, these include the BYD Atto 3, BYD Song Plus, and BYD Tang.
Geely on the other hand has a sub brand known as Geely Galaxy. This brand has three models. These models include a compact sedan known as Galaxy L6, a midsize sedan known as the Galaxy E8, and a compact crossover SUV known as Galaxy L7.
Geely also offers EVs under the Geometry, Zeekr, Volvo, and Lotus.
Autonomous Driving Capabilities
A key area for innovation these days are the autonomous driving capabilities. Nowadays all customers are going crazy for self-driving cars and they have some very high expectations.
But are we there yet? Well, not quite. These days, we are still far behind achieving some higher levels of autonomy besides Level 2. This is also the case for Geely and BYD.
So, what is Level 2 autonomy? Well, Level 2 autonomy is a type of autonomy that gives you some freedom to drive on the highway with minimal interference.
In other words, this is an autopilot for the highway. Both BYD and Geely are offering such an option with their EVs.
Behind this feature is the adaptive cruise control. The adaptive cruise control is a feature that works with the help of sensors, radars, and cameras. Then, with the aid of powerful hardware and complex algorithms this data is evaluated and the car makes instant decisions.
Both BYD and Geely are reportedly working on Level 3 autonomy. But it is not yet known when it will be introduced. Maybe there will be many years until we finally see self-driving cars roaming the streets.
However, Geely is working with Waymo and Mobileye that are highly advanced in this aspect and offer some self-driving taxis. But time will tell what will happen in the near future.
Pricing and Affordability
Pricing and affordability is definitely one of the most important aspects when it comes to buying a new EV. EVs tend to cost a lot and having some good offers is crucial for many of these companies to survive.
What is good when it comes to BYD is that BYD offers plenty of options for you as a buyer. BYD has some of the most affordable EVs on the market right now.
The BYD Seagull and the BYD Dolphin are two of these models. Starting at $10,000 and $13,000, respectively.
While Geely has the Panda Mini, a micro EV that starts at $5,900.
Overall, both of these brands have very affordable electric cars. It really depends on your budget how much you have to spend.
Brand Image and Perception
Brand image and perception are probably the two things that affect the sales of a certain brand. A good image is something that brings a lot of sales.
When it comes to BYD and Geely, we can say that these brands are doing fairly well. Especially BYD who is building its brand around the BYD logo and the BYD name.
Unlike Geely, who is building its name around other popular brands like Volvo, Lotus, Zeekr, and Polestar.
Here we see one major difference between the two. Geely diversifies a lot more compared to BYD and offers different brands for different audiences. BYD offers only one brand.
But in the near future, we can expect that BYD will also follow this path and offer a more premium brand, they already started doing this with the Yangwang brand in recent times and the all new U8 model.
After-Sales Support and Maintenance
An area that makes some manufacturers stand out from the crowd is the after sales support and maintenance that that these brands offer.
If you have happy customers, you will definitely sell more cars in the long term. And this is what both BYD and Geely offer.
Geely got the vast network of dealerships when they bought Volvo and are using this to extend their reach as far as possible. So, when you buy a Volvo, you just know that you will get an unforgettable experience.
BYD on the other hand is starting fresh and is building its chain of dealerships and maintenance centers across the world from scratch. So, this can take a while, but we don’t doubt BYD since they already proved that they are a very capable company.
The warranty they offer is really good, 8 years or 160,000 km. You just can’t beat that. Geely only offers 5 years or 150,000 km.
Future Outlook and Industry Trends
When it comes to the future outlook of both of these companies, we can say that both have a very good perspective in the long term.
Geely is already an established company with a number of brands including Volvo and new very popular brands like Zeekr.
Considering this, we can say that Geely will improve on the sales even more in the upcoming years and be more profitable.
While BYD on the other hand, the largest EV manufacturer in the world, things are also looking in the positive direction.
BYD is spreading its footprint across the world and is managing to get the most sales from all of the competitors.
So, we can say that the future of both of these brands seems very bright.
Conclusion
In this article, we crafted a very comprehensive comparison between BYD and Geely in many important areas. Some of which included the innovation, performance, driving comfort, lineup, brand perception, pricing, as well as the market presence.
Both BYD and Chery are very strong manufacturers with millions of cars sold on a yearly basis but BYD is definitely much larger when it comes to the EV manufacturing capacities.
Geely on the other hand has some popular EV brands like Zeekr, that manage to generate plenty of sales in this segment of the market.
Overall, both Geely and BYD are definitely worth your attention and you should check their models out!
