BYD continued to increase its global plug-in electric car sales quickly in April, achieving a new second-best-ever monthly result and approaching the record set in December 2023.
BYD‘s passenger plug-in car sales amounted to 312,048 units last month, including over 14,000 EVs from its sub-brands. That’s 49% more than a year ago.
BYD might beat Tesla in Q2
BYD wasn’t able to sell more all-electric cars than Tesla in the first quarter of 2024, although the race in Q2 might be close. It’s expected that the company will sell more than 400,000 units this quarter.
BYD’s all-electric car sales in April amounted to 134,465, up 29% year-over-year. It’s not a bad result, but growth isn’t as spectacular as in the case of plug-in hybrids.
Last month, the Chinese manufacturer sold 177,583 PHEVs, significantly more than BEVs, achieving a 69% year-over-year increase.
BYD passenger plug-in car sales last month (YOY change):
- BEVs: 134,465 (up 29%)
- PHEVs: 177,583 (up 69%)
- Total: 312,048 (up 49%)
BYD also sold 1,197 commercial electric vehicles for a total of 313,245 plug-in vehicles last month.
Out of the total number, 41,011 BYD plug-ins were sold overseas (13% of the total volume). This is a new record with a massive 177% year-over-year growth rate. Exporting from China appears to be BYD’s main focus right now.
So far this year, BYD has sold over 936,000 passenger plug-in electric cars, 24% more than a year ago.
BYD passenger plug-in car sales year-to-date (YOY change):
- BEVs: 434,579 (up 18%)
- PHEVs: 501,867 (up 29%)
- Total: 936,446 (up 24%)
For reference, in 2023, BYD sold over 3.0 million passenger plug-in electric cars, 62% more than in 2022. In 2023, BYD became the largest Chinese carmaker and car brand. In 2024, the company intends to achieve an average growth rate of over 20%.
The top nameplate in BYD’s lineup last month was—as usual, without any surprise—the Song family, with 80,860 units sold (mostly plug-in hybrids). That’s a 126% increase year over year.
The second most popular family is the BYD Qin sedan, with 51,170 units (BEV + PHEV), up 21% year-over-year.
The third most popular model was the tiny BYD Seagull, an entry-level all-electric model with 34,832 sales. The all-electric BYD Yuan family was behind with 34,701 units, down 11% year-over-year.
The plug-in hybrid BYD Destroyer 05, which had 32,800 plug-ins, was also very strong, which contributed to the outstanding growth of PHEVs in April.
