BYD Becomes the First Traditional Car-Maker in China that Achieved Full Electrification of Automobiles?

SHANGHAI, Nov 4 (SMM) - On the evening of November 3, BYD released its latest sales figures announcement through Hong Kong Stock Exchange, according to which it sold 89,935 new vehicles in October, an increase of 88.42% year-on-year. As of now, BYD has sold a total of 542,679 new vehicles from January to October this year, representing a cumulative year-on-year increase of 71.35%.

It is worth noting that BYD sold 8,895 fuel vehicles in the month, accounting for a proportion of less than 10% of overall sales in the month for the first time, at 9.85%, a significant reduction of 63.72% compared to the same month last year. The reduction in the proportion of fuel vehicles was accompanied by a concentrated explosion in sales of its new energy vehicles. Based on this trend, BYD may be the first traditional car manufacturer to achieve the "no-fuel" target in China by the end of the year.

According to the statistics, BYD sold 81,040 new energy vehicles in October, accounting for 90% of the total sales in the month and a 249.05% jump from the same month last year. By now, BYD has sold 418,619 new energy vehicles in the first ten months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 212.03%.

Based on these data, BYD secured the runner-up position as the world's best-selling EV (including plug-in hybrids) brand in the first three quarters of this year, second only to Tesla, which saw boosts in sales in the third quarter of this year.

Recall that at the beginning of this year, a piece of information about BYD Auto's strategic plan for new energy vehicles in 2021 was circulated online. It revealed that BYD's 2021 new energy vehicle sales target is 400,000 units, with EVs and DM hybrids accounting for half each.

It is November and only 15,555 units remain to be sold against BYD's 200,000 unit sales target for plug-in hybrids, a monthly average target of less than 8,000 units; and behind this dazzling achievement is the lack of production capacity for BYD's DM-i models.

On May 17 this year, BYD issued a statement, apologising for the longer waiting period for new orders and said it would further expand its production capacity. Subsequently, it was revealed that BYD plans to invest RMB 2 billion to establish a production base in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, mainly for the production of EHS powertrain, with an expected annual production capacity of 500,000 sets.

As the industry knows, according to the Energy-saving and New Energy Vehicle Technology Roadmap 2.0 released in the second half of last year, China's energy-saving and new energy vehicles will each account for half of the total by 2035. However, according to data from the Gasgoo Automotive Research Institute, the sales of hybrid models in China only accounted for about 5% of overall sales in 2020.

At present, BYD Auto still has as many as 160,000 orders in hand. In the future, with the commissioning of the blade battery production lines in Qinghai, Xi'an and Chongqing, the vehicle production capacity is expected to develop at an accelerated pace, thus ensuring that BYD continues to capture an even larger market share of global new energy vehicles.