Following Wang Chuanfu and staking his second half of life, he is the most important digger of BYD's "technology fishpond".
Many people have heard of Wang Chuanfu's "technology fishpond" theory - BYD's self-developed technologies are all gathered in a "fishpond", and when the market needs them, one can be fished out. However, what many people don't know is that Lian Yubo is one of the most important people who dug this "fishpond".
In the winter of 2003 in Shanghai Pudong, in the coffee shop on the 86th floor of the Jinmao Tower, 37-year-old "Battery King" Wang Chuanfu and an engineer of a similar age were having a lively chat.
In an era when "minibuses" were everywhere on the streets, these two "reckless youths" with dreams had already started planning to integrate battery technology into automobiles and develop electric vehicles in China. So engrossed were they in the conversation that they didn't notice the passage of time. It was not until the sun rose the next day that they realized a whole night had passed.
No one could have foreseen that twenty years later, electric vehicles would become the high - ground for global automakers to compete for. Wang Chuanfu and this engineer not only jointly built BYD, the world's largest new energy vehicle company, but also became the core promoters of the electrification transformation of the global automotive industry.
This engineer is Lian Yubo, the chief scientist of BYD and the dean of the Automotive Engineering Research Institute, who is hailed in the industry as "the man behind Wang Chuanfu" and "the digger of BYD's technology fishpond".
Following Wang Chuanfu into the Automobile Industry
Lian Yubo had a dream of building airplanes since childhood. In 1982, at the age of 18, he was admitted to Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics with a score 60 points higher than the admission line.
In his free time, he made aircraft models and tinkered with various small electronic inventions. When he heard that the Science and Technology Association was looking for people to clean old airplanes, he rushed to sign up just for the chance to touch an airplane with his own hands.
However, his ideal of building airplanes was never realized. After graduation, he was assigned to work at an automobile factory in Yizheng, Jiangsu, his hometown. Here, he began his in - depth connection with automobile manufacturing.
At that time, the gap between China's automotive technology and the international level deeply touched Lian Yubo. He studied automotive - related theories and technologies hard while setting a goal: to build advanced Chinese - made cars one day.
During his work, Lian Yubo was successively sent to the China Automotive Technology and Research Center in Tianjin and Italy for further study. At the age of 27, he was promoted to the deputy chief engineer of Yizheng Automobile.
In 2000, Lian Yubo founded Tongji Tongjie Company with several teachers from Tongji University. At that time, many domestic automobile companies began to explore building their own brands, and many automobile designs were carried out or assisted by Tongji Tongjie. As a result, Lian Yubo became a sought - after talent for automakers.
However, Lian Yubo remained unmoved. After all, it was not easy to give up the enterprise he had built with his own hands. It was not until 2003 that Lian Yubo met Wang Chuanfu.
At that time, "Battery King" Wang Chuanfu, despite facing huge internal and external doubts, had just acquired 77% of the shares of Shaanxi Qinchuan Automobile for 270 million yuan. He was in urgent need of an automotive technology expert like Lian Yubo.
Lian Yubo highly recognized Wang Chuanfu, who also came from an engineering background. Many years later, in an interview with reporters, he said that it was Wang Chuanfu's passion for electric vehicles, the light in his eyes, and his determination and national responsibility to develop Chinese electric vehicles that touched him.
Their obsession with technology and the dream of building an automaker that could subvert traditional internal combustion engine technology made them appreciate each other. After three all - night talks, Lian Yubo decided to "bet his second half of life" and follow Wang Chuanfu into automobile manufacturing.
Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones
At the end of 2003, Lian Yubo officially joined BYD and was in charge of the R & D of new cars. However, the situation he faced was not optimistic.
Wang Chuanfu's insistence on cross - border automobile manufacturing and the acquisition of Qinchuan Automobile caused strong opposition from investors, and BYD's stock price plummeted. Then, in 2004, the losses of the "Fulai'er" model under Qinchuan continued to expand, with a loss of more than 70 million yuan in 2004 alone.
In such a situation, Wang Chuanfu placed his bet on Lian Yubo. Although the company's automotive R & D team was weak and lacked equipment and instruments, Lian Yubo, like Wang Chuanfu, had a "crazy" spirit. Wang Chuanfu said that a car was just "a pile of steel" and there was no need to have a "technological fear" of automobile manufacturing. Lian Yubo did not believe in the practice of "foreign monks chanting scriptures better" or "recruiting high - paid talents". He believed that a good R & D team must be cultivated by oneself.
Subsequently, he recruited dozens of university graduates in Shanghai, purchased some equipment, and established the Shanghai BYD R & D Center with limited resources. Many of these college students have now become the core backbones of BYD's R & D.
The first project Lian Yubo took over was the "316" model under development at BYD. This car was based on the Fulai'er model with some modifications, but it was not mature and formal in many aspects, "like an undercooked meal". After the car was finalized, BYD invited dealers for evaluation. The result shocked the dealers, and many of them left without looking back.
After a night of suffering, a deeply - hit Wang Chuanfu decided to cancel the 316 model and start over. As a result, more than 200 million yuan in mold costs went down the drain.
At that time, the market had great doubts about what kind of results BYD could achieve. Wang Chuanfu understood that BYD's first car could only succeed, not fail. His task for Lian Yubo was to develop a new car within a year.
With a tight schedule and a heavy task, what should be done? After careful consideration, Lian Yubo decided to develop a more cost - effective model based on the popular Toyota Corolla in the market at that time. After all, Japanese, Korean, and even German automakers all started from imitation in the early days and then gradually occupied the market with cost - effectiveness. When the strength was not enough, choosing to "cross the river by feeling the stones" was the most prudent way.
With a clear mind, Lian Yubo devoted himself to the R & D of the new model with high - intensity work. He always arrived at work first and left last every day, often too busy to even have time to eat.
In September 2005, BYD's first mass - produced model, the F3, which had poured countless efforts from Wang Chuanfu and Lian Yubo, was launched. Its appearance was similar to that of the Corolla, but the price was only half of the Corolla's. After its launch, the market response was extremely enthusiastic. In less than a year, the sales volume exceeded 100,000 units, making it the self - owned brand in Chinese history that reached 100,000 in sales the fastest.
The cost - effectiveness advantage of the F3 even shocked Toyota, which was famous for cost control and lean manufacturing. They couldn't understand how BYD could make the car so cheap, so they even bought an F3 for disassembly and research.
Actually, the secret was that BYD replaced a large number of mechanical equipment with manual labor. Many production equipment was built by Lian Yubo's team using makeshift methods. A senior industry insider visited BYD's automotive R & D center in Songjiang, Shanghai. He was surprised to find that only one or two pieces of laboratory equipment were imported, and the rest were all imitations of imported equipment.
Although the F3 was an instant hit, many people within the automotive industry still looked down on BYD, believing that they had no real technological strength. A senior executive of an automaker once commented that the F3 was just a poor imitation of the Toyota Corolla. However, a few years later, he was surprised to find that BYD's craftsmanship and technology had made rapid progress.
This was actually Lian Yubo's outstanding ability. Although his team imitated and referred to competitors' products, they did not stop there. Instead, they always attached importance to improving their own technological strength. This was fundamentally different from some domestic automakers' simple imitation of the appearance of foreign products later. As Wang Chuanfu said, "Our goal is not to imitate products but to ultimately master the development platform."
After the F3, Lian Yubo led his team to successively launch models such as the F3R and F6, achieving good market results. As a result, BYD established a foothold in the Chinese automotive market.
Breaking Through in New Energy Vehicle Technology
Although several consecutive fuel - powered cars had good market performances, BYD's real goal was to subvert the traditional automotive industry and manufacture electric vehicles.
Wang Chuanfu said, "We entered the automotive industry mainly to build electric vehicles, and the core of electric vehicles is the battery. Batteries are our forte. Therefore, we firmly believe that we can transplant BYD's advanced low - cost and high - quality manufacturing model to the automotive industry, which will greatly change the global automotive competition pattern."
Looking back now at Wang Chuanfu's bold words, it has to be said that this was a strategic judgment with great foresight. However, it was not easy to implement at that time.
Even before Lian Yubo joined BYD, Wang Chuanfu had tried to install batteries in the Fulai'er sedan. In terms of range alone, it could even run up to 280 kilometers.
In 2004, while developing the BYD F3, the BYD Electric Vehicle R & D Department under Lian Yubo's leadership was officially established. At the Beijing Auto Show that year, they demonstrated BYD's ambition: they launched three new energy models for exhibition, including the pure - electric taxi EF3, the electric concept car ET, and the hybrid sedan Hybrid - S. This was even four years earlier than the launch of Tesla's first electric model, the Roadster.
However, at that time, the automotive market was still dominated by fuel - powered cars, and the public and the media did not have enough understanding of new energy vehicles, so it did not attract much attention.
After that, Lian Yubo led his team to tackle key problems in the "three - electric system" of electric vehicles. Among them, IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor, insulated gate bipolar transistor chip), the core component responsible for the motor drive efficiency, was a key technological difficulty.
The automotive IGBT has always been monopolized by a few foreign suppliers such as Mitsubishi, Fuji, and Infineon. For BYD to build first - class new energy vehicles, it had to master the technology of this core component. Lian Yubo said that without a technological breakthrough, BYD's electric vehicles would have no future.
In 2008, BYD spent nearly 200 million yuan to acquire Ningbo Zhongwei Semiconductor Company. Starting from wafer manufacturing, they completed the entire process of chip design, manufacturing, and packaging, and independently built the first national automotive - grade IGBT full - industry - chain production line.
Mastering core technologies is not easy, and it is also not easy to solve seemingly insignificant small components. During the R & D of BYD's hybrid models, they found that a spring in the clutch driven plate could not adapt to the rapid response of the motor in the hybrid mode.
Lian Yubo led his team to conduct research day and night. After countless repeated failures, they solved the problem after a few months. However, new problems followed. No supplier could manufacture this spring. For this reason, Lian Yubo slept in the supplier's production workshop for two consecutive months to supervise the manufacturing. Finally, he got a qualified product.
At the Detroit Auto Show at the end of 2009, BYD exhibited two milestone models. One was the world's first mass - produced plug - in hybrid model, the F3DM, and the other was the first domestic mass - produced pure - electric vehicle, the E6.
Technologically speaking, the F3DM is the origin of BYD's current hybrid technology, DM - i, and the E6 started the commercial application of BYD's pure - electric models.
Wang Chuanfu was very satisfied with these two models. In an interview with foreign media, he boldly said that he wanted to be "the gravedigger of the internal combustion engine". Whenever Lian Yubo mentioned the F3DM, he would always talk about that small spring.
Ten Years in the Trough, Silently Working Hard
After the launch of the F3DM and E6, BYD did not enter a period of rapid development. Instead, it faced a trough that lasted for ten years.
In 2010, BYD's sales volume reached 519,000 vehicles, but it was not until 2021 that this figure was exceeded. From 2011 to 2019, BYD's sales volume stagnated, its market share shrank, and it faced huge doubts and pressure.
There were many factors leading to this situation, but the main problem was that BYD lacked advanced technologies and excellent products in the fuel - powered vehicle field, and the new energy vehicle market was not mature enough. In addition, limited by factors such as technological routes and costs, consumers did not highly recognize BYD's new energy products and technologies.
As the company's operation was difficult, some people advocated continuing to focus on the fuel - powered vehicle field or adopting the hybrid route of Japanese automakers. However, Lian Yubo said, "For an independent enterprise to survive and develop, it must attach importance to R & D and innovation. There is no other way out." Wang Chuanfu fully supported Lian Yubo. He said, "We must grit our teeth and persevere. Even if we choose the wrong (technological route), I'll accept it!"
During BYD's ten - year trough period, BYD poured all available resources into R & D. Its R & D expenses almost exceeded the company's net profit every year. Even at the lowest point, it never wavered. From 2017 to 2019, BYD's profits declined significantly. In 2019 in particular, the net profit was only 1.6 billion yuan, but it invested 8.2 billion yuan in R & D. As a result, BYD was once on the verge of collapse.
In the long dark night, Lian Yubo once thought that he would not see the spring of new energy vehicles and electric vehicles. However, his determination to subvert fuel - powered vehicles never changed, and he never stopped his steps in technological R & D. He commanded tens of thousands of engineers to solve one problem after another in the R & D of BYD's new energy vehicles and electric vehicles, and put all kinds of "big fish" into BYD's "technology fishpond".
These "big fish" were waiting for the right time to turn into dragons.