Founder of Tesla's biggest rival drank battery fluid to impress investor Berkshire Hathaway: Report

Chinese automaker BYD was founded by Wang Chuanfu and Stella Li. (Image credit: Reuters)

The founder of Tesla's biggest global EV rival, China's BYD, once drank battery fluid in front of a senior executive from Berkshire Hathaway. The automaker then went on to get an investment of $232 million from Warren Buffett's company, the Wall Street Journal reported.

In 2008, impressed with BYD's momentum, a lieutenant of Berkshire Hathaway David Sokol visited the company in Shenzhen where the co-founders Wang Chuanfu and Stella Li explained to Sokol the company's competitive advantages, eventual global expansion plans, and clean battery tech.

Then, to show how confident he was about green its in-house tech to Sokol, Wang took a sip from a glass of BYD's battery fluid, the publication reported. A few months later, Berkshire Hathaway bought a 10 percent stake in BYD for $232 million. The investment boosted BYD's trajectory as a mass-producer of vehicles powered by the very batteries it designed.

Now, even though Berkshire Hathaway's share in BYD has shrunk to less than 4 percent, the EV maker's overall success continues.

BYD had actually started out by copying the likes of Japanese giants making batteries. Now, however, it makes headlines for its success in selling EVs.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that while Wang has long said the company's name didn't stand for anything in particular, it now stands for "Build Your Dreams." As per the report, Wang once joked that BYD stood for "Bring Your Dollars." The man started the company with a $300,000 loan from a relative and at one point was worried the firm might not make it.