The story
Weichai Power was founded on 23 December 2002. Its shares began trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2004 and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2007.
In 2009, Weichai bought French marine engine manufacturer Moteurs Baudouin. In 2012, it agreed to buy a 25% stake in German forklift manufacturer KION Group for €738 million; the stake grew to 38.25% by 2016.
Weichai became the first Scuderia Ferrari sponsor from China in January 2013; the sponsorship was to end in 2016.
The company appeared on the Fortune 500 list for the first time in 2021, ranking 425th.
Since 1999, Weichai Group has partnered itself with Bosch, an engineering company based in Gerlingen, Germany, to share research and development on technologies such as fuel cells and common rail fuel-injection systems. On November 3, 2023, they both signed a strategic cooperation agreement where they agreed to cooperate on the development of new technologies, such as high thermal efficiency diesel engines.
In 2023 Weichai partnered with BYD, a Shenzhen-based electric vehicle manufacturer and also the biggest electric vehicle manufacturer in the world. Both companies plan to develop new electric vehicle technology, as Weichai has planned since 2010 to focus on new energy options and has invested approximately $550 million in research and development of electric, hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell engines.
In 2024 Weichai demonstrated the most efficient diesel engine in the world at the World Congress on Internal Combustion Engines in Tianjin, China. This diesel engine has 53.09% thermal efficiency as verified by Technischer Überwachungsverein, an international testing body. It is expected that the engine would perform with 14% better fuel efficiency than previous engines, which would reduce operating costs and reduce carbon footprint.
From Wikipedia’s article on Weichai Power, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4