In 2010 Mercedes-Benz started its unsuccessful joint venture, Denza, with BYD which was then not even a decade old. The project, whose name appears to have been inspired by a combination of the D in BYD and the last three letters of Benz, started out as a 50-50 joint venture named Shenzhen BYD Daimler New Technology and focused on research and development of electric and hybrid powertrain vehicles. However, sales volumes were consistently disappointing, in the thousand and not even in tens of thousands. As a result, in 2021 BYD took control of the brand by taking a 90% stake in the venture and now Mercedes-Benz has withdrawn entirely from the company, with BYD assuming 100% control.
