On Wednesday February 28, Dushanbe Mayor Rustam Emomali received BYD Regional Director for Central Asia Ivan Tsao.

The Dushanbe Administration press center says the parties discussed state and prospects of further expansion of bilateral cooperation between Dushanbe Administration and BYD Company. 

Emomali and Tsao, in particular, discussed the possibility implementing projects in the field of mechanical engineering with the launching capacities in Dushanbe.

They also exchanged views on expanding cooperation on assembling electric minibuses, import of batteries and other spare parts for electric vehicles, and electric trucks

It is to be noted that during his state visit to China, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon met with Ivan Tsao in the city of Xi’an on May 18 last year.  The parties reportedly discussed issues related to the expansion of cooperation in the field of machine building and the launch of joint ventures for the production of electronic components in Tajikistan.

BYD Company Limited or BYD is a publicly listed Chinese multinational conglomerate manufacturing company headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.  It was founded by Wang Chuanfu in February 1995.  The company has several major subsidiaries: BYD Auto that produces vehicles; BYD Electronic that produces electronic parts and assembly; and FinDreams companies that produces automotive components.

BYD's largest subsidiary, BYD Auto was founded in 2003 and currently is the world's largest electric vehicle manufacturer.  Since 2009, BYD's automotive business has contributed above 50 percent of its revenue, reaching 76 percent in 2022.  Through other subsidiaries, BYD also produces rechargeable batteries (mobile phone batteries, electric vehicle batteries and bulk storage), forklifts, solar panels, semiconductors, and rail transit network.

The "BYD" name is the pinyin initials of the company's Chinese name Biyadi, which itself was created from company's original trademark Yadi Electronics (named after the Yadi Road in Dapeng New District, where the company was once based) and the character Bi was just conveniently added to give the company an alphabetical advantage in trade shows.  The company later back-formed a slogan, “Build Your Dream”, or more commonly “Build Your Dreams”.

The Guardian reported on January 2 this year that BYD, which has been backed by the US investment billionaire Warren Buffett since 2008, has beaten Tesla’s production for a second consecutive year.

BYD reportedly said it produced 3.02m new energy vehicles in 2023.  The American multinational Tesla announced on January 2, 2024 that it made 1.84m cars.  However, BYD’s sales figures include 1.6m battery-only cars, and 1.4m hybrids, which means that Tesla is still the leader in the production of electric battery-only cars.  Nevertheless, in the final quarter of last year BYD outsold Tesla in battery-only cars – 526,000 to 484,000 – for the first time, The Guardian added.