Elon Musk dismissed BYD in 2011 by laughing at their products during a Bloomberg interview. “Have you seen their car?” Musk quipped. “I don’t think it’s particularly attractive, the technology is not very strong. And BYD as a company has pretty severe problems in their home turf in China. I think their focus is, and rightly should be, on making sure they don’t die in China.” BYD did not get wiped out. Instead, it dethroned Tesla in the fourth quarter as the top EV maker, selling more battery-powered vehicles than its U.S. rival. “Their goal was to be China’s largest auto manufacturer and put China manufacturing on the map,” Taylor…
