The unification of the chip and algorithm businesses is a positive sign that BYD is accelerating the pace of its own smart driving research and development, local media said.

(Image credit: CnEVPost)

BYD's (OTCMKTS: BYDDY) smart driving R&D system is rapidly adjusting, and the company is planning to do its own smart driving chip design, according to a new report.

Wang Huan, head of smart driving R&D at BYD's planning institute, has left, and the smart driving development division he oversaw was spun off, with most of its more than 500 employees being consolidated into the electronics integration department, according to a report today by 36kr.

This adjustment started at the end of last year, and BYD aims to sort out the smart driving R&D resources scattered in different systems, according to the report.

After this realignment is completed, Han Bing, director of the electronics integration department, has become the head of smart driving R&D at BYD's planning institute, where he is preparing a smart driving chip design team, the report said.

The electronics integration department is mainly responsible for developing operating systems, domain controllers, and middleware. The unification of the chip and algorithm businesses is a positive signal for BYD to accelerate the pace of smart driving in-house research, the report noted.

Together with the algorithm business and the smart driving chip business, Han's team of more than 1,000 people has become one of the three core segments of BYD's planning institute, the report said.

BYD chip packaging and integration may be given to BYD's sixth business unit instead of Han's chip design team, the report said, citing sources.

While BYD's existing models are currently largely dependent on solutions from external suppliers, including Baidu, Huawei and Momenta, the NEV maker is already accelerating its focus on smart driving.

At present, BYD's cooperation with some smart driving solution suppliers has stopped, and it may continue to use some suppliers' lower-level solutions, but will favor its own research and development in higher-level solutions, the report said, citing a BYD insider.

On March 17, 36kr reported that BYD's biggest organizational change so far this year has been to make its car brands operate independently.

The adjustment starts with BYD's core R&D department, and its engineering research institute is planning to set up several independent departments to cover its product lineup including Dynasty, Ocean and Denza, according to the report.

All of BYD's sub-brands will have a separate research institute, the report said, citing a source.

BYD aims to sell at least 3 million vehicles this year and strive to reach 3.6 million, the company's chairman and president Wang Chuanfu said at an investor conference in late March.

BYD aims to become China's No. 1 automaker by the end of this year, Wang said at the time.

BYD sold 210,295 NEVs in April, up 98.31 percent from 106,042 units a year earlier and up 1.55 percent from 207,080 units in March, according to data released May 2.

To achieve its full-year goal of selling 3 million NEVs, BYD will need to sell an average of about 280,000 vehicles per month for the next eight months.

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