Chief Executive John Lee and a delegation of officials and lawmakers visited the headquarters of BYD in Shenzhen on Saturday, as they continued a four-day trip to the Greater Bay Area.

BYD specialises in the production of new energy vehicles and rechargeable batteries.

The delegation was received by BYD's founder Wang Chuanfu.

The CE and lawmakers visited a laboratory at the company's headquarters where they were shown an experiment in which a needle was inserted into two batteries to test their safety performance.

An ordinary lithium battery immediately exploded and caught fire, while a “blade battery” developed by BYD remained stable.

They were also briefed about a rail transit system dubbed the 'SkyShuttle' developed by BYD.

Lawmaker and engineer Gary Zhang said Hong Kong should explore whether the system could be used in the city.

“I think the SkyShuttle technology has its own advantages because this system doesn’t need [an external] power supply. That’s an innovative design in terms of mass transit system. I think we should explore whether it’s feasible for Hong Kong,” he said.

The delegation will split into two groups and visit Dongguan and Foshan separately, before visiting Guangzhou together on Monday.