BYD aims to recapture fuel-powered vehicle market share

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Tagged as a NEV-oriented automaker which put less weight on traditional fossil-fuel powered vehicles, BYD aims to recapture the market share of the fuel-powered vehicles. Li Yunfei, vice general manager of BYD Sales Company exposed recently that BYD has entered into the adjusting period since it launched the BYD Song Max last year, and BYD's fuel-powered vehicles will enter into a new era.

BYD's NEV sales reached 113,600 units with a YoY increase of 13.4% in 2017. Meanwhile, BYD also became China's first automaker whose cumulative sales of NEVs totaled more than 300,000 units. However, sales of the fuel-powered vehicles kept sluggish, making BYD's total sales slide 17.5% on an annual basis.

Li Yunfei said that consumers who desire to buy NEVs would prefer BYD's NEV models, while the consumers who desire to buy fuel-powered vehicles would consider little about buying BYD's fuel-powered vehicles. He added that the automaker paid more attention and resources on new energy vehicles in recent years.

It is said that BYD launched one new fuel-powered model annually. At the same time, BYD's market strategy and brand promotion strategy still didn’t give inclination to fuel-powered vehicles, slowing down its sales growth. 

In fact, BYD started to return and focus on fuel-powered vehicle sector under the state quo of unbalance between NEVs and fuel-powered vehicles. In September, 2017, BYD released the Song Max to march into MPV market. The cumulative sales of the Song Max had reached more than 85,000 units since it hit the market.

As is disclosed by Li Yunfei, the Song Max is the first model built in BYD's new era of vehicle manufacturing. The new era of vehicle manufacturing means that all of BYD's new models will be designed by world-renowned masters in designing, tuning and quality. Meanwhile, BYD will offer different power modes of fuel-powered, plug-in hybrid and pure electric vehicles, based on the same platform.