BYD’s auto sales in Jan. plunge 42.68%, while oil-fueled vehicle sales still jump

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Shenzhen-based automaker BYD said its new vehicle sales in Jan. 2020 tumbled 42.68% year on year to 25,173 units.

The plunge in NEV sales should be entirely blamed for the overall sharp decrease. Last month, the company sold only 7,133 NEVs, a steep decrease of 75.12% over the year-ago period. Of that, the decrease in PV and CV sales stood at 74.93% and 82.96% respectively.

Among the new energy PVs sold in Jan., the sales of BEVs and PHEVs reached 5,144 units and 1,876 units, plummeting 68.28% and 84.08% from the prior-year period.

The flagging sales in January linked to tumbling demands resulting from the earlier Spring Festival holiday, which is a traditional slack season for auto sale. Besides, the new coronavirus epidemic erupting in late January further worsened the situation.

（Photo source: BYD)

Despite the cloudy market climate, BYD still saw its oil-fueled vehicle sales jump 18.28% to 18,040 units. The significant increase owes much to the surging SUV sales, which were more than doubled over a year ago. In addition, the fuel-burning sedan sales also climbed 3.56% to 4,484 units. The rising performances in both sedan and SUV sectors successfully offset the plunge in MPV sales.

BYD said the installed capacity of NEV power battery and energy storage battery in January was approximately 0.366GWh.

Amid national spread of new coronavirus, BYD has put forth great efforts to fight against the virus. The automaker announced on Feb. 8 it is working on designing and manufacturing the facilities for the production of masks and disinfectants. The production of those supplies is expected to begin around Feb. 17 and will continue until the epidemic is eliminated. By the end of Feb., the respective output capacity of masks and disinfectants can reach 5 million units and 50,000 bottles per day.