BYD saw record new energy vehicle (NEV) sales in May, putting it over the 1 million unit mark for sales in the year. The NEV giant sold 240,220 NEVs in May, up 108.99 percent from 114,943 units a year ago and up 14.23 percent from 210,295 units in April, according to data released today.
The company discontinued production and sales of vehicles powered entirely by internal combustion engines in March last year to focus on producing plug-in hybrids and pure electric vehicles.
BYD’s NEVs include passenger cars as well as commercial vehicles, with sales of 239,092 new energy passenger cars in May, up 109.39 percent from 114,183 units in the same month last year and up 14.14 percent from 209,467 units in April.
BYD’s new energy commercial vehicles sold 1,128 units in May, up 48.42 percent from 760 units in the same month last year and up 36.23 percent from 828 units in April.
Among these passenger NEVs, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) sold 119,603 units, up 124.19 percent from 53,349 units a year ago and up 14.6 percent from 104,364 units in March.
Its passenger plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) were 119,489 units, up 96.42 percent from 60,834 units in the same month last year and up 13.69 percent from 105,103 units in April.
In May, BYD sold 10,203 NEVs in overseas markets, down 31.19 percent from 14,827 units in April. The company first announced overseas sales figures for NEVs in July 2022.
BYD’s installed power and storage battery capacity in May was about 11.489 GWh, up 85.22 percent from 6.203 GWh in the same month last year and up 15.42 percent from 9.954 GWh in April.
From January to May, BYD’s NEV sales exceeded the 1-million-unit mark at 1,002,591 units, up 348.11 percent from 507,314 units in the same period last year.
Its passenger NEV sales for the period were 996,476 units, up 358.15 percent from the same period last year.
BYD aims to sell at least 3 million vehicles this year and strives to reach 3.6 million, the company’s chairman and president Wang Chuanfu said at an investor conference in late March.
BYD aims to become China’s No. 1 automaker by the end of this year, Wang said at the time.
To achieve its goal of selling 3 million NEVs for the year, BYD would need to sell an average of about 285,000 vehicles each month for the next seven months.
