Fudi's "customer No. 1" revealed that Ford's first domestic electric car was equipped with BYD ternary lithium battery, and the standard Tesla Model Y

After half a year of "snow hiding", the mysterious "No. 1 customer" of BYD's Fudi battery finally surfaced.

"Mustang Mach-E uses a BYD ternary lithium battery." Ford insiders revealed the news to the Financial Associated Press at the site of the launch of Mustang Mach-E, Ford's first electric car in China, on April 14. He long, chairman of Fudi Battery, appeared at the press conference and took a group photo with Ford's senior executives in China, which also confirmed the cooperative relationship already reached between Ford and BYD.

"Ford is the No. 1 customer of BYD." On the same day, BYD insiders confirmed the identity of the long-rumored "No. 1 customer".

On this day, half a year has passed since "customer No. 1" was first exposed in the industry.

On September 3 last year, an article entitled "World famous car companies visit Fudi Battery Blade Battery Super Factory" published an article entitled "Lithium Electric Man". On September 2, accompanied by he long, vice president of BYD Group and chairman of Fudi Battery, and Zhong Sheng, General Manager of Chongqing Fudi Battery, senior executives of "customer No. 1" visited the production processes of blade batteries in Fudi battery factory. It also makes an in-depth understanding of Chongqing Fudi planning blueprint, the principle of blade battery acupuncture experiment, and the technical characteristics of Pack workshop and assembly section. The article also said that "customer No. 1" is a century-old car company, ranking in the forefront of Interbrand (the world's top 100 brands).

Subsequently, the industry made a variety of guesses about the mysterious "No. 1 customer", but BYD officials remained silent.

"in fact, 'No. 1' is just a code name, which does not mean that it is the first external customer of BYD battery." After the decryption of "customer No. 1", the BYD insider said.

However, for Ford China, the Mustang Mach-E, which announced its sale price on April 14, is its out-and-out "No.1" product. In November 2019, Mustang Mach-E was unveiled ahead of the Los Angeles Auto Show, the first new model of the Mustang brand in nearly five years. However, compared with the "predecessors" of various classic fuel cars, the Mach-E has evolved into a pure electric model under the global electrification tide. To this end, Ford specially set up a "Edison" team to comprehensively co-ordinate the operation of Mustang Mach-E.

"instead of creating a new electric brand or building an all-electric model under the original brand, it would be better to have a complete 'revolution'." Zhu Jiang, a former senior executive of Xilai, is now the chief operating officer of Ford's China Electric vehicle Division and a member of the "Edison" team. in his view, the electrification of Mustang represents a century-old Ford attitude towards electrification.

Ford's determination to electrify the Mustang has led to a good market performance for the Mach-E. The latest figures show that Mach-E, which was first launched in North America, sold 6614 vehicles in the first quarter of this year. Of this total, 2637 were sold in March, accounting for 1.3 per cent of Ford's total sales. Although Ford only states that "70 per cent of car buyers come from competing brands", it goes without saying that the "competitive brand" is Tesla.

In the Chinese market, domestic Mach-E also pointed the finger at Tesla Model Y. After typing the keyword "Model Y" in the search engine, the first pop-up result is "Ford Mustang Mach-E from 265000 yuan". After the price adjustment on March 24th, the price range of domestic Tesla Model Y is 347900 yuan to 377900 yuan, while the long-lasting version of Mustang Mach-E is only less than 310000, and the configuration is more abundant, which is undoubtedly more "lethal" to customers.

However, according to industry insiders, while Ford wants Mach-E to compete directly with Model Y, given that the two brands target completely different users, they are more likely to be at peace with each other in future market contests.

"for Ford China, it doesn't matter who takes the customer from. The important thing is that Mach-E must achieve volume as soon as possible, so as to further enhance the confidence of the Ford brand in the Chinese market." Some industry insiders believe that.

According to the data, Ford sold 76700 vehicles in China in the first quarter of this year, although it achieved a year-on-year growth of 44.7 per cent, but still lagged behind 75.1 per cent of the overall passenger car market.