China’s EV boom remains alive and continues to grow—well, for industry leader BYD, that is, thanks to its determined push deeper into so-called plug-in hybrids.
The company announced on Monday that it sold a record number of EVs in August, referred to as NEVs (new energy vehicles) in China, which includes battery-powered and plug-in hybrids. August sales rose 30% from a year ago to 373,083 passenger cars, surpassing the previous record set in July of 342,383 units.
Sales of hybrid-powered (PHEVs) vehicles surged by 73% year-on-year to 222,384 units, accounting for just under two-thirds of all BYD cars sold last month.
Sales of battery-only cars increased by 12% from July to 148,470 units, which was also 2% above the August 2023 level.
In the first eight months of this year, total EV sales reached 2.318 million passenger cars, up 30% from the same period in 2023.
BYD’s passenger BEVs sold 1,004,623 units in January-August, surpassing the 1 million-unit mark, an increase of 12% year-on-year.
However, sales of passenger plug-in EVs totalled 1.314 million units in January-August, up 48.3% year-on-year.
(BEV sales were strong in January and February of this year but were later overtaken by sales of plug-in models.)
BYD reported selling 31,451 vehicles in overseas markets, up 25.7% year-on-year and 4.8% from July.
This brought total exports to 264,869 units in January-August, up 126% from the first eight months of 2023. This has BYD on track to lift exports to around 400,000 units by the end of this year, assuming the August pace continues.
If overall sales maintain the August pace, BYD will have sold more than 3.6 million units by year’s end, compared to just over 3 million for all of 2023.