BYD, Faurecia open auto seat joint venture in Shenzhen

BYD and Faurecia, a world-leading auto parts supplier jointly held an opening ceremony for their auto seat joint venture (JV) in Shenzhen on July 5.

As is revealed, founded with a registered capital of RMB 200 million, the auto seat JV was 30% controlled by BYD, while Faurecia holds a 70% stake in the JV. The JV specializes in R&D, manufacturing, assembling, marketing and delivery, covering product R&D and seat products, which include complete car seats, seat framework, seat foaming and seat trims.

By virtue of both parties' advantages in technologies and platforms, the JV is expected to have an annual production capacity of 700,000 sets and reach annual sales revenue of more than RMB 2 billion. The JV is sited at BYD's headquarter in Pingshan, Shenzhen. What's more, the JV has two subsidiaries in Changsha and Xi'an, which will further rent BYD's existing factory buildings in the two cities.

After announcing the opening up its supplying and marketing system, BYD saw multiple projects start operation. The spin-off of BYD's seating business means that BYD now can be more concentrated to focus on its core businesses to gain rapid development in the future. Just as BYD chairman and president Wang Chuanfu said, BYD's spin-off of seating business is a crucial part of BYD's marketization moves. BYD will further focus on vehicle manufacturing, cost management and control, as well as efficiency and brand promotion, to maintain its leadership in industry.

Faurecia, one of the world's largest auto parts suppliers, boasts advanced auto seating technologies and ranks third in auto seating area worldwide. Partnering with BYD will help the parts supplier gain more shares in the world's largest NEV market. Patrick Koller, CEO of Faurecia stated that Faurecia attaches great importance to the cooperation with BYD. The partnership with the industry-leading EV maker will further improve Faurecia's development in the Chinese market.