![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD_combined_world_employers_carmakers_NMN.png?resize=640%2C532&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\nWhile Volkswagen, Ford, and other Western automakers are cutting jobs, China’s BYD is moving in the opposite direction. With more than one million employees, it now ranks among the world’s largest corporate employers.<\/p>\n
But as sales growth slows and international expansion becomes more expensive, can BYD afford to keep growing its enormous workforce?<\/p>\n
BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu revealed this week that the Chinese group now employs more than 1.02 million people. That is substantially more than Europe’s largest car manufacturer, Volkswagen, with 663,000 employees, and nearly four times Stellantis’ 259,000. Mercedes-Benz employs 164,000, BMW 155,000, and Renault around 100,000.<\/p>\n
Remarkably, BYD alone employs almost three-quarters as many people as these five European manufacturers and Volvo Cars combined. Or that is roughly 170,000 more than Toyota, General Motors, Ford, and Tesla combined.<\/p>\n
The figures put BYD among the world’s three largest publicly listed corporate employers, behind American retail giant Walmart, with around 2.1 million employees, and Amazon, with approximately 1.6 million.<\/p>\n
BYD is also in a league of its own among Chinese manufacturers. Rival SAIC Motor employs around 180,000 people, while Great Wall Motor has fewer than 100,000.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Even the broader Geely Holding Group, which includes Volvo Cars, employs just over 140,000. And not all Chinese automakers are hiring: SAIC and NIO have both significantly reduced their workforces in recent years.<\/p>\n
Of BYD’s employees, 960,000 work in China and 60,000 abroad. An impressive 120,000 are research and development engineers, working on batteries, electric motors, electronics, and semiconductors.<\/p>\n
The contrast with the traditional automotive industry could hardly be greater. Volkswagen is preparing to eliminate up to 100,000 positions worldwide by 2030, while suppliers such as Bosch are cutting thousands of jobs as Europe’s automotive industry struggles with overcapacity, high costs, and Chinese competition.<\/p>\n
BYD, meanwhile, has added approximately 150,000 employees since the beginning of 2026, expanding its workforce by 17%.<\/p>\n
However, the Chinese manufacturer is not immune to restructuring. Its workforce actually shrank from approximately 969,000 at the end of 2024 to 870,000 a year later, a reduction of nearly 100,000 positions.<\/p>\n
That makes this year’s renewed hiring spree even more remarkable, particularly as BYD’s vehicle sales fell during the first nine months of 2026.<\/p>\n
Comparing BYD directly with Volkswagen or Toyota is somewhat misleading. Unlike most traditional manufacturers, BYD produces many of its own batteries, electric motors, electronic components, and semiconductors.<\/p>\n
Its activities also extend far beyond cars, encompassing energy storage systems and consumer electronics manufacturing. Work outsourced to suppliers by Western automakers is often performed by BYD employees.<\/p>\n
This vertical integration gives the Chinese company greater control over costs, technology, and production. It also explains why its workforce is so exceptionally large. But there is a downside. When demand weakens, BYD carries the employment costs of much of its supply chain itself, rather than passing the pressure to outside suppliers.<\/p>\n
BYD’s latest financial results, published on Thursday, offer some reassurance. Third-quarter revenue climbed 13.6% to 221.5 billion yuan (\u20ac27 billion), while net profit increased 28% to 10 billion yuan (\u20ac1.2 billion).<\/p>\n
Yet the broader picture is less encouraging. Revenue over the first nine months barely increased, while net profit declined 4.2% to 22.3 billion yuan.<\/p>\n
Personnel expenses already represented almost 18% of turnover during the first half of the year.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, inventories have risen by 60% since December, and outstanding customer payments by more than 50%, reflecting the growing financial demands of international expansion.<\/p>\n
BYD remains profitable and generates substantial operating cash flow. Nevertheless, maintaining a million-person workforce requires continued sales growth and sufficient margins, particularly as competition intensifies in China.<\/p>\n
Ironically, BYD is also preparing for a future in which it may need far fewer employees. The company is developing its own humanoid robots and has already tested UBTECH’s Walker S1 in its factories. In August, it expanded its robotics partnership with Chinese specialist PaXini.<\/p>\n Executive vice-president Stella Li told Business Insider in June that BYD could move towards largely automated ‘dark factories’ within three to five years, where robots operate production lines without human workers.<\/p>\n For now, such technology remains experimental, and BYD has announced no corresponding layoff targets. But the contrast is striking: while building one of the world’s largest human workforces, the Chinese manufacturer is simultaneously investing in a future in which machines could take over much of that work.<\/p>\n Exports are increasingly crucial to BYD’s future. Overseas sales are rising rapidly, helping compensate for pressure in its domestic market. But producing vehicles in Europe, including at its new Hungarian factory, will expose BYD to higher labor costs, different regulations, and more complex supply chains.<\/p>\n The company may discover that its highly integrated Chinese manufacturing model is harder to replicate profitably abroad. For now, BYD’s enormous workforce remains a competitive strength, particularly its army of engineers developing tomorrow’s electric vehicles.<\/p>\n Yet size can also become a liability. While European manufacturers are painfully reducing their industrial footprint, BYD is betting that global expansion will keep its factories and employees busy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While Volkswagen, Ford, and other Western automakers are cutting jobs, China’s BYD is moving in the opposite direction. With more than one million employees, it now ranks among the world’s largest corporate employers. But as sales growth slows and international expansion becomes more expensive, can BYD afford to keep growing its enormous workforce? BYD chairman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":196929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\r\n\r\n{excerpt}\r\n\r\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[77160,16,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-196926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china","category-industry","category-top-stories-today"],"acf":[],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-factory.jpg?fit=1020%2C680&ssl=1",1020,680,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-factory.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-factory.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-factory.jpg?fit=640%2C427&ssl=1",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-factory.jpg?fit=640%2C427&ssl=1",640,427,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-factory.jpg?fit=1020%2C680&ssl=1",1020,680,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-factory.jpg?fit=1020%2C680&ssl=1",1020,680,true],"trp-custom-language-flag":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-factory.jpg?fit=18%2C12&ssl=1",18,12,true],"related-thumb":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-factory.jpg?resize=640%2C480&ssl=1",640,480,true],"gform-image-choice-sm":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-factory.jpg?resize=300%2C300&ssl=1",300,300,true],"gform-image-choice-md":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-factory.jpg?resize=400%2C400&ssl=1",400,400,true],"gform-image-choice-lg":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-factory.jpg?resize=600%2C600&ssl=1",600,600,true],"mailchimp":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-factory.jpg?fit=560%2C373&ssl=1",560,373,true],"unipress-phone":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-factory.jpg?resize=640%2C100&ssl=1",640,100,true],"unipress-tablet":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-factory.jpg?resize=1020%2C240&ssl=1",1020,240,true],"unipress-tablet-portrait":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-factory.jpg?resize=1020%2C180&ssl=1",1020,180,true],"unipress-tablet-landscape":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-factory.jpg?resize=1020%2C180&ssl=1",1020,180,true],"unipress-smartphone":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-factory.jpg?resize=1020%2C168&ssl=1",1020,168,true],"unipress-wide-screen":["https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-factory.jpg?resize=1020%2C180&ssl=1",1020,180,true]},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":" While Volkswagen, Ford, and other Western automakers are cutting jobs, China’s BYD is moving in the opposite direction. With more than one million employees, it now ranks among the world’s largest corporate employers. But as sales growth slows and international expansion becomes more expensive, can BYD afford to keep growing its enormous workforce? BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu revealed this week that the Chinese group now employs more than 1.02 million people. That is substantially more than Europe’s largest car manufacturer, Volkswagen, with 663,000 employees, and nearly four times Stellantis’ 259,000. Mercedes-Benz employs 164,000, BMW 155,000, and Renault around 100,000. Remarkably,…<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"China<\/a>, Industry<\/a>, Top Stories Today<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"Joris Van Roy","url":"https:\/\/newmobility.news\/en\/author\/jorisximcom-be\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newmobility.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/BYD-robot.jpg?resize=640%2C360&ssl=1\")
Europe becomes the next big test<\/h4>\n