BYD's 5-millionth NEV film praises rivals: 'Together, we are China's automobile'

On 9 August 2023 BYD became the first automaker worldwide to build 5 million new-energy vehicles, a milestone it could easily have framed as its own triumph. Chinese brands had just taken half the domestic market and overtaken Japan in exports, so the moment belonged to the industry as much as to one company.

Instead of self-celebration, make the whole category the hero: a brand film praising every rival Chinese automaker, ending 'Together, we are China's automobile.'

BYD released a film tracing Chinese cars from the first Jiefang truck of 1953 to today, naming and honoring FAW, Dongfeng, Changan, SAIC, GAC, Chery, Geely, Great Wall, XPeng, NIO and Li Auto. At the Shenzhen ceremony the company parked 13 rival-brand models in a display area under the slogan 'Together, we are China's automobile', and Wang Chuanfu gave an emotional speech on BYD's 20 hard years.

The film spread through WeChat Moments and social feeds that night: over 22 million Weibo plays and 25,000+ reposts, and 10,000+ likes, shares and recommendations on WeChat video. The next day more than ten rival brands including XPeng, NIO, Li Auto, Chery, Voyah and GAC Aion reposted it; XPeng's He Xiaopeng and Li Auto's Li Xiang publicly congratulated BYD, and the response was widely read as proof of the industry's new unity.

On 9 August 2023, BYD rolled its 5-millionth new-energy vehicle off the line in Shenzhen, becoming the first automaker in the world to reach that number. Chairman Wang Chuanfu, who had built the business from a 2003 acquisition into China's best-selling car company, cried several times as he recalled twenty years of near-failure — the natural occasion for a self-congratulatory product celebration.

Instead, BYD released a brand film that made the whole category the hero. It opened with the first Jiefang truck of 1953 and walked through seventy years of Chinese automotive history, honoring FAW, Dongfeng, Changan, SAIC, GAC, Chery, Geely and Great Wall alongside newcomers XPeng, NIO and Li Auto, ending on the line 'Together, we are China's automobile.' At the ceremony, thirteen models from rival brands sat in a display area under the same slogan.

The film exploded across WeChat and Weibo that night: more than 22 million Weibo plays and 25,000 reposts, and over 10,000 likes, shares and recommendations on WeChat video. The next day more than ten automakers BYD had praised reposted the film and congratulated the industry; XPeng's He Xiaopeng praised BYD's 'big-brother' stance and Li Auto's Li Xiang called it a great time to be a Chinese EV maker.

The milestone gave BYD a stage everyone was watching, and using it to praise rivals inverted the expected self-celebration — that surprise made the moment news.

By narrating seventy years of the whole industry, the film made every Chinese car brand a co-protagonist, so competitors had a reason to join the campaign rather than resist it.

Releasing it as a film with shareable footage, not a press release, gave rivals ready-made material — their reposts became the campaign's real distribution network.

The timing matched the industry's mood: Chinese brands had just crossed half of the domestic market and become the world's biggest car exporter, so the 'together' frame felt true rather than forced.

At a milestone that belongs to your company, give the credit to everyone in the category: a generous frame turns rivals into amplifiers who repost your story instead of competing with it.

The line '在一起，才是中国汽车' became shorthand for the rise of Chinese car brands and entered BYD's own brand vocabulary; the same night Wang Chuanfu predicted Chinese brands would take 70% of the domestic market by 2025. The goodwill was real but not universal: on 11 August, Great Wall's CTO publicly rejected the appeal with 'we don't want to be morally kidnapped into being together' — and of the eleven rivals named in the film, nine responded warmly while Great Wall and Geely stayed silent. The episode showed both the power and the limit of a category-level brand gesture.