(Yicai) Nov. 5 -- BYD employed an additional 200,000 staff between August and October to boost vehicle and parts production and meet surging orders as the Chinese new energy vehicle maker’s sales sailed past the 500,000 mark for the first time last month.

BYD hiked output by 200,000 units in the last three months and all its production bases were working at full capacity, He Zhiqi, executive vice president of the Shenzhen-based company, said on social media on Nov. 2. Many of BYD’s factories have hired more than 10,000 people since August. They are mainly looking for front-line workers, technicians and forklift operators.

The biggest limiting factor to increasing capacity is manpower, a recruiter at one of BYD’s production bases told Yicai. And front-line operation staff are in the biggest demand.

BYD is the largest employer among China’s listed car companies with more than 900,000 staff, although not all of them work in the auto business as the firm’s operations range from cars to mobile phones to batteries. Some 110,000 staffers are technical R&D personnel, making BYD the car company with the most R&D staff in the world.

BYD’s Zhengzhou plant recruited 11,700 staff in August, and after that both the BYD Automobile Industrial Park in the Shenzhen-Shanwei Special Cooperation Zone and its Xi'an factory each began to advertise for 10,000 front-line workers.

The Shenzhen-Shanwei BYD Automobile Industrial Park, which currently employs over 20,000 people, is expected to have a headcount of over 50,000 employees at a later stage, a human resources manager said.

BYD is not the only Chinese new energy vehicle maker that is increasing its headcount in order to ramp up production.

Xiaomi Auto recruited a large number of workers in June, offering salaries of up to CNY10,000 (USD1,400) a month, with the goal of delivering 120,000 cars this year.

One of AITO’s factories in Chongqing began hiring a large number of front-line workers in October to meet a sharp increase in orders. And Xpeng Motors' Zhaoqing plant also started recruiting for nearly 100 front-line workers and forklift operators last month.

Editor: Kim Taylor