Shanghai (ZXZC)- BYD, the Chinese leader in electric vehicle (EV) field, is scheduled to finish spinning off its automotive battery arm, which is ready to go public around 2020, the automaker revealed on August 7 in response to a netizen's question at a platform Shenzhen Stock Exchange sets up for the communication between investors and listed companies.

(Photo source: BYD)

The spin-off of the battery business division and relevant preparation for going public are being steadily advanced for now, the automaker said.

"BYD is scheduled to spin off its battery division into a separate entity, which is expected to be listed by 2022," said Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD, in an interview with Bloomberg News last December.

The schedule for separating the automobile battery business depends on the production and operating capability of the division, Wang added.

This was not BYD's first time to convey the intention of separating battery arm. Prior to Wang’s statement, Shen Xi, deputy manager of BYD's EDV battery unit, disclosed as early as March 31, 2018, that BYD was spinning off its battery unit and the spin-off was likely to be listed in 2022 or 2023. However, he said then the spin-off was expected to be completed at the end of 2018 or in early 2019.

BYD, known for manufacturing electric cars and buses, has now developed into one of the world’s largest battery providers. Last month, the Shenzhen-headquartered carmaker and the Japanese auto giant Toyota announced that they had signed an agreement for the joint development of battery electric vehicles. The two parties would jointly develop sedans and low-floor SUVs as well as the onboard batteries for these vehicles and others with the aim to launch them in the Chinese market under the Toyota brand in the first half of the 2020s.

For the month of July, the installed capacity of NEV power battery and energy storage battery of BYD was approximately 0.812GWh. The cumulative installed capacity for the year 2019 totaled roughly 8.998GWh.