Eleven years ago, Wang Chuanfu estab- lished BYD Company Limited with RMB2.5 million (US$314,000). He has become well- known in China's battery industry ever since, for he adopted a production line of semiauto- matic and semi-manual initially instead of the expensive automatic line.What Wang did has a great influence on the development of China's battery industry. He dem- onstrates that China can win over Japan through high efficiency and low costs. Inspired by BYD, medium and small battery manufactures includ- ing Shenzhen-based B&K Electronics, HYB Battery, and Power Tech have grown up quickly. However, the tale of China's battery in- dustry seems to have been forgotten today. Tianjin Lishen Battery is going to get listed in Hong Kong early next year. It has financed a capital of over 100 million USD and is aiming to expand its productivity. Besides, several big Lithium-ion battery manufacturers such as Hypercell Power Source Technology funded by Henan Huanyu Group and Harbin Coslight Technology (1043.hk) are also going to launchexpansion schemes. While most companies are trying to make products with high stability and safety, they tend to use automatic produc- tion lines which need huge investment. In this process, the concept of labor-intensive and low-cost manufacturing is gradually forgotten. The global battery industry, on the other hand, is also taking a new shape compared with ten years ago. Today, low costs and low prices become a decisive competitive edge in the competition. Chinese Lithium-ion battery manufacturers are carving up the medium and low-end markets, with Japanese companies taking less than 60 per cent of the market share. In the global Lithium-ion battery battlefield, China, Japan and Korea are be-coming the three giants.