Popular Chinese electric car giant BYD had record sales of passenger vehicles in August, with sales of hybrids growing faster than those of battery-only cars. As per BYD, sales in August rose by a record 30% year-on-year to 370,854 passenger cars.
BYD sold 148,470 passenger BEVs in August, up 1.95% year-on-year. It sold 222,384 PHEVs, the sixth consecutive record high since March, up 73.12% year-on-year. Its sales of battery-only cars rose by nearly 12%, while hybrid-powered vehicle sales surged by 48% to account for just under two-thirds of BYD cars sold last month.
BYD record sales
BYD saw record growth of new EV sales last month, as plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) models continued to grow strongly.
The PHEV maker sold a record 373,083 new EVs in August, surpassing July’s previous record of 342,383 units, as per report.
This represents a 35.97% increase year-on-year and an 8.97% increase from July.
BYD’s DM 5.0 hybrid technology
BYD unveiled its DM 5.0 hybrid technology on May 28, which allows for lower fuel consumption, and has since launched a number of hybrid models equipped with the technology.
BYD ceased production and sales of vehicles powered entirely by internal combustion engines in March 2022, switching to a focus on the production of PHEVs and battery electric vehicles (BEVs).
In August, BYD sold 31,451 vehicles in overseas markets, up 25.69 percent year-on-year and up 4.79 percent from July.
BYD is China’s largest NEV company, and also China’s second-largest power battery maker.
BYD’s installed base of power and energy storage batteries amounted to about 18.846 GWh in August, up 35.31 percent year-on-year and up 14.09 percent from July.
China EV market slowdown
China’s EV market overall faced slowdown where several new energy vehicle startups saw a dip in deliveries last month.
Famous for its range-extender vehicles, Li Auto reported 48,122 deliveries in August, down from a record 51,000 in July.
Aito, which uses Huawei technology, said it delivered 31,216 cars last month, down by around 10,000 vehicles from previous month. Huawei is selling the Aito trademark and patents to automaker Seres for 2.5 billion yuan ($352.5 million).
New cars with reduced price
As per Nio, it delivered 20,176 cars in August, down slightly from July but above 20,000 for a fourth-straight month.
The company’s lower-priced brand Onvo opened 105 stores on Sunday as it prepares to begin for deliveries for its first car, the L60 SUV, this month. Nio is scheduled to report earnings on Friday.
Xpeng reported 14,036 car deliveries in August, its best month for the year so far. Xpeng sells it mass market Mona M03 electric car for equivalent of less than $20,000 in China.
Zeekr reported 18,015 deliveries in August, down from 20,206 deliveries in June.
Undercutting Tesla and going global
Zeekr on Friday said it would launch its first SUV this month with a price more than $1,400 lower than Tesla’s Model Y. The U.S.-listed Chinese company said it aims to deliver the SUV globally by the end of this year, but did not specify which countries or regions.
BYD sales overseas
BYD said it sold 31,451 cars overseas last month, pushing the year-to-date total to 264,869 and above the 242,765 cars it sold abroad for all of last year.
If BYD keeps up its average monthly overseas sales pace through the end of December, the company will sell around 400,000 cars overseas this year.
