THE ELECTRIC CITY
STAGGERING drone footage shows the scale of the vast Chinese electric vehicle mega factory that is being built.
The sprawling BYD factory in Zhengzhou, in China's Henan province, is set to be bigger than a major US city and has its own football ground.
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Aerial footage of the factory and the land it is expanding onto shows masses of sleek production buildings, high rise blocks, a football pitch and tennis courts all separated by roads.
As the drone continues to cover the site, it shows the vast expanse where work is beginning on building new parts of the facility, as well as what looks like a small village where workers live.
At the back of that settlement is more land earmarked for construction work.
The site is set to dwarf rival Tesla's Gigafactory in Nevada that covers 4.5 square miles.
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When completed, the factory, which is being built in eight phases, is set to cover 32,000 acres or 50 square miles.
For comparison, San Francisco in California is 46.9 square miles.
Phases five to eight are now underway, majorly expanding the current factory.
According to reports, BYD as a whole has over 900,000 employees and will add over 200,000 more in the next three months.
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As of last month, the Zhengzhou facility had around 60,000 workers.
Thousands of employees live and work on site, with the mega factory seeming more like a city - especially with its recreational provisions like the football pitch.
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One viewer of the drone footage said: "This is essentially a city dedicated to EV production."
"What an unfathomable scale."
On LinkedIn, another said: "Asian factories are like small European towns."
"With their own bus lines, dormitories, recreation areas etc."
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"Gigafactories are so 2010s. BYD is building a Terafactory," a third viewer commented.
Meanwhile, others called it an "eye sore" and raised financial and "ghost city" concerns if BYD fails to get and retain customers.
Once complete, the factory is set to produce over one million units per year.
The site's first vehicle that rolled off the production line in April last year was a Song Pro DM-i priced at over £17,600.
The completion of the expansion is highly anticipated as BYD chairman and president Wang Chuanfu has been forced to repeatedly apologise to customers.
Before the Zhengzhou facility started manufacturing vehicles, Wang spent two years grovelling about lengthy wait times for BYD vehicles due to a lack of capacity.
But once production began and with its capacity ever-increasing, BYD saw record sales in 2024 with 4.25 million new energy vehicles sold last year.
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The company had set a target of 3.6 million but after a stellar performance, has a 2025 target of selling 5.25 million cars.
The expansion will continue to cement China's reputation as the largest manufacturer of electric vehicles in the world - dominating both production and sales.
The rise of Chinese EVs
China's electric vehicle (EV) industry has rapidly risen to dominate the global market, driven by strong government support, technological innovation, and growing consumer demand.
Key players like BYD, NIO, and XPeng lead the charge, offering a range of affordable and premium models.
China's leadership in battery production, through firms like CATL, further strengthens its position.
This growth aligns with the country's push to reduce carbon emissions and promote green mobility.
While challenges like market competition and battery sustainability remain, China's EV sector is reshaping the global automotive landscape.
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