A Chinese electric car maker backed by Warren Buffett re-tooled to make face masks when COVID-19 hit - now it says it's the world's largest mask factory

• BYD, a Chinese electric car maker backed by Warren Buffett, says it has built the world's largest face mask factory, as first reported by Bloomberg.
• In a press release, the company said it can produce 5 million face masks and 300,000 bottles of disinfectant per day.
• In late January, as the coronavirus outbreak began to spread in China, BYD said it rapidly re-engineered its production lines, allowing it to make masks and disinfectants with more than 90% in-house parts.
• Other manufacturing companies, like Foxconn, a major Apple supplier, have also transformed their businesses to meet the surging demand for protective equipment.
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Chinese electric car maker BYD said it's operating the world's largest face mask factory less than a month after starting production in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, according to a press release issued Friday and first reported by Bloomberg.

"[BYD] has created the world's largest mass-produced face masks plant. The plant is now running at full capacity and is able to produce 5 million masks and 300,000 bottles of disinfectants per day," the release said.

In late January, as the coronavirus was sweeping across China, BYD said it rallied more than 3,000 engineers and other employees to re-design its production lines so it could make protective equipment and meet the surge in global demand.

The team researched, designed, and built machines capable of making face masks and disinfectants, and began production less than two weeks later, on February 8, according to the release. BYD said the production line required about 1,300 different parts, and that it was able to source about 90% of them internally.

BYD, which counts Warren Buffett and Samsung Electronics as major investors, is based in Shenzhen and also makes electric batteries. BYD has continued to scale up its new production lines, and announced Friday it is increasing its capacity at a rate of between 300,000-500,00 masks per day.

As the coronavirus has spread, other industrial manufacturers have retooled their factories as well. Foxconn, a major Apple supplier, diverted part of its production line in early February to make medical masks and clothing, rather than the usual iPhone parts.