BYD Europe organizes supplier conference to increase focus on local sourcing

BYD

At BYD Europe’s first-ever supplier conference, held at the BYD bus and truck plant in Komarom, Hungary, the focus was on helping to integrate increased local sourcing into the bus production activities and building a bigger proportion of locally sourced components. The event was attended by around a hundred suppliers from twelve EU countries. The delegates also included suppliers to the BYD France bus factory in Beauvais, north of Paris. 

The theme of the supplier conference was ‘Growing a win/win partnership’. “By that we mean combining BYD’s technology and European R&D capability with the expertise and innovation of our suppliers,” explained Isbrand Ho, Managing Director of BYD Europe, to the conference audience. “It takes time to evaluate, test and homologate products with the local components but in this way we can be more flexible and have shorter delivery times and better quality for our clients,” he continued.

The conference attendees also received presentations on BYD’s corporate ambitions, future product plans, the exciting new Skyrail monorail system, global purchasing structure and aftersales policy. The purchasing managers for both BYD Hungary and BYD France set out their requirements and expectations.

First Supplier Awards

Later in the conference, Mr Ho presented BYD Europe’s first Supplier Awards to eight outstanding suppliers, including companies from Hungary, Austria, Poland, the UK and the Netherlands. The winners were chosen based on analysis of a variety of factors such as price, service, delivery time and product quality.

BYD Company Limited is a leading high-tech multinational company founded in 1995 and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Having expanded from a company that only produces and markets rechargeable batteries, today it operates in the four core fields of IT, automotive, new energy and rail transit. The company employs approximately 220,000 people, and has over 30 industrial parks and production bases worldwide. BYD has two European bus manufacturing plants (in Komarom and Beauvais) as well as UK bus building capability via its partnership with Alexander Dennis Ltd (ADL). The market for electric buses is becoming increasingly competitive, and localized production will have a key role to play in the company’s future success.