Chinese EV makers heed rallying call to unite and overtake Tesla

Competitors take to Weibo to hail Byd's video calling on China to 'demolish the old legends' and achieve world-class car brands

Byd released a video about China's auto industry, from the founding of a dozen rivals from the state-run FAW Group in 1956, to commercial EV startups Xpeng, Nio, and Li Auto in the past decade. File picture

A patriotic call by China’s bestselling automaker to band the industry together and “demolish the old legends” of the global market has gone viral, drawing both raves and a rebuke from a rival.

Byd used an event this week to mark a production milestone to celebrate a bigger purpose, the emergence of China as a global auto manufacturing powerhouse.