BYD Global Plug-In Car Sales Dropped 36% In February 2024

The company is cutting prices and applying discounts to improve sales.

BYD Dolphin

Mark Kane

By: Mark Kane

Mar 4, 2024 at 1:40pm ET

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February has brought a very surprising jaw-dropping decrease in BYD plug-in car sales, after a few years of rapid year-over-year growth.

BYD's passenger plug-in car sales amounted to 121,748 units last month—including 7,688 EVs from its sub-brands. That's over 36% less than a year ago and the first year-over-year decrease since mid-2020.

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3 million plug-ins sold in 2023

BYD is the world's largest plug-in electric car manufacturer with more than 3 million sales in 2023 and over 6 million sales cumulatively. In recent months, the company has focused more on all-electric cars, which outpace plug-in hybrids.

Just like in the case of Tesla's Made-in-China car sales decrease, we can assume that the results were negatively affected by the 2024 Chinese New Year holiday (between February 10 and 17). In 2023, the festival was in January.

However, the drop was so significant that there might be other reasons as well, specifically related to demand and fierce competition in China—BYD's core market. An indication of that is the recent price cuts or fatter discounts on BYD's new EVs, reported by Reuters (via Automotive News).

BYD all-electric car sales in February amounted to 54,908, down 39% year-over-year. Plug-in hybrid sales decreased by 34% year-over-year, to 66,840.

BYD passenger plug-in car sales last month (YOY change):

BEVs: 54,908 (down 39%)
PHEVs: 66,840 (down 34%)
Total: 121,748 (down 36%)

BYD also sold 563 commercial electric vehicles for a total of 122,311 plug-in vehicles last month. Out of the total number, some 23,291 BYD plug-ins were exported (up 55% year-over-year).

BYD plug-in electric car sales – February 2024

So far this year, BYD sold over 322,000 passenger plug-in electric cars, 6% less than a year ago.

BYD passenger plug-in car sales year-to-date (YOY change):

BEVs: 160,212 (down 1%)
PHEVs: 162,555 (down 10%)
Total: 322,767 (down 6%)

For reference, in 2023, BYD sold over 3.0 million passenger plug-in electric cars (in line with the target), which was 62% more than in 2022.

Let's recall that in 2023, BYD BYD has become the largest Chinese carmaker, the largest car brand in China, and the world's largest PHEV manufacturer. In 2024, it might also become the largest all-electric car manufacturer, as it sold over 1.6 million units in the last 12 months.

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Top Models

The top nameplate in BYD's lineup in February was the Song family with 35,273 units sold (mostly plug-in hybrids).

Next was the Qin family (BEV + PHEV) with 16,191 units and the all-electric BYD Dolphin (13,725). Interestingly, the tiny BYD Seagull this time was fourth with 13,392 units. The all-electric BYD Yuan noted a big 74% collapse to 8,583, probably because the model is getting a new updated version.