BYD Company Ltd was founded on February 10, 1995, in Shenzhen, China, by Wang Chuanfu, a 29-year-old chemistry PhD from the Central South University of Technology who had previously worked as a government researcher at the Beijing Institute of Nonferrous Metals. Wang left his government position to start BYD with 20 employees and 2.5 million yuan (approximately $300,000 USD) borrowed from his cousin Lu Xiangrong, a loan that was backed by no collateral other than Wang's technical expertise in battery electrochemistry. The company's founding proposition was straightforward and technically grounded: the global rechargeable battery market was about to explode with the proliferation of mobile phones and laptop computers, and Japanese manufacturers like Sanyo, Sony, and Panasonic dominated the market using highly automated production lines that required enormous capital investment. Wang's insight was that he could replace automation with extremely cheap Chinese labor and achieve the same quality at a fraction of the fixed cost, breaking the Japanese manufacturers' cost advantage without requiring equivalent capital expenditure. By 1997, just two years after founding, BYD had become the second-largest nickel-cadmium battery manufacturer in China and was supplying Motorola, Nokia, and Ericsson. The 1997 Asian financial crisis paradoxically accelerated BYD's growth: Japanese manufacturers, under pressure to cut costs, shifted more production to Chinese suppliers, and BYD's ability to undercut Japanese competitors by 40% on price made it the preferred alternative. By 2000, BYD had pivoted to lithium-ion batteries, recognizing that the higher energy density of lithium chemistry would eventually displace NiCd in consumer electronics. The 2003 acquisition of Xi'an Qinchuan Automobile Company, a state-owned enterprise that produced the Flyer, a gasoline-powered minicar, for $74 million marked BYD's controversial entry into automotive manufacturing. Wang's stated rationale was that batteries were the core technology of electric vehicles and that BYD's battery expertise made it uniquely positioned to capture the EV transition before established automakers could adapt. Warren Buffett's investment partner Charlie Munger introduced Berkshire Hathaway's interest in BYD in 2008, resulting in a $232 million investment for approximately 25% of the company. The endorsement from Buffett provided BYD with enormous credibility in international capital markets and helped it navigate the 2008-2009 global financial crisis without resorting to government bailouts.