BYD NEV sales surge in May greatly thanks to soar in PHEV sales

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- BYD Company Limited (BYD) announced it scored a 45.49% year-on-year leap by selling 46,295 new vehicles in May 2021.

According to the announcement, the robust growth was credited to the blooming new energy vehicle (NEV) sales. Last month, BYD sold 32,800 NEVs, representing a year-over-year hike of 189.62% and accounting for up to 71% of the company's total sales.

Of the NEVs sold last month, there were 31,681 passenger vehicles (PVs), a year-on-year surge of 198.85%. To be specific, all-electric vehicle sales soared 126.03% over a year earlier to 18,711 units, while 12,970 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) were sold to hit a precipitous growth of 458.33%. Notably, it was the first time for BYD to see its monthly PHEV sales to exceed 10,000 units, mainly thanks to the market launch of the three vehicle models using BYD's DM-i super hybrid technology, namely the Qin PLUS DM-i, the Song PLUS DM-i, and the Tang DM-i.

Qin PLUS DM-i; photo credit: BYD

The automaker kicked off the presale of the three DM-i-powered models on January 11, 2021 and the order volume has so far exceeded 100,000 units, according to local media reports.

According to Wang Chuanfu, chairman and president of BYD, the DM-i models are capable of up to 120km on battery power alone, and are available for both AC slow-charging and DC fast-charging models.

In May, BYD saw its oil-fueled vehicle sales plunge 34.16% from the previous year to 13,495 units. The growth in the year-to-date volume contracted to 5.19%, versus the 19.12% increase in Jan.-Apr. sales.