Since January 2022, BYD has continued to record increased sales of vehicles, of which a larger percentage were EVs.
On November 8, 2022, BYD disclosed its plan to launch a new Premium EV. The Shenzhen-based automobile company plans to unveil the electric vehicle by the first quarter of 2023. According to BYD, the new premium brand will cost above CNY 1 million (ABOUT USD 138,000), adding that the price will remain the same. This price tag will make the premium EV series the company’s most expensive model. Currently, the most expensive model of BYD is Denza D9, a limited edition car co-ventured with Mercedes Benz. Denza D9 costs over USD 96,000.
In April 2022, BYD announced a change in its company’s policy. BYD noted that the company would seize the production of gasoline cars. However, the company will continue to manufacture gasoline engines for hybrid vehicles. This strategic change will make the company focus exclusively on plug-in hybrid and pure electric vehicles. Despite producing hybrid vehicles, many Chinese are more interested in electric vehicles. In recent times, the government’s incentives for hybrid cars have been rare to come by. The Chinese government describes electric cars as the 'new energy vehicles.' China’s EV sales jumped by approximately 92% YoY to reach 1.24 million units in Q2 2022. Meanwhile, only 0.64 million units were sold in the second quarter of 2021. In 2021, BYD had the second-highest EV sales after SAIC. BYD managed to sell over 320,000 EVs in that year.
Since January 2022, BYD has continued to record increased sales of vehicles, of which a larger percentage were EVs. Sales report shows that over 97% of the vehicles sold by BYD were EVs. The company sold 46,386 pure EVs and 46,540 hybrid vehicles in January. Recently, BYD sold over 200000 cars monthly, increasing sales to over 187% year-on-year. In Q3 2022, the Chinese company produced 534,164 units dethroning the popular American pure EV maker, Tesla Inc., in deliveries. In October 2022, retail sales of new-energy vehicles in China rose by 75%, with BYD leading the sales, followed by Tesla. Most sales came from BYD’s top three models: BYD Song, BYD Han, and BYD Qin.
BYD is on its tenth consecutive sales record for the new EV series. According to BYD’s recent filings, the company has sold over 1.4 million units from January to October. Currently, it has the highest electric vehicle sales in the world’s auto market. The position of BYD in the automobile market is set to take another positive turn with the upcoming premium EV release. Invariably, the BYD premium EV series launch will increase its competitiveness in the market. Before this announcement, the Chinese market has yet to embrace high-end vehicles. Only a few companies, like NIO, Lucid, Porsche, and Tesla, have high-end EV models.