Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD suffered from a notable 36% year-on-year sales decline in the global market in February 2024.
This sales decline is apparently caused by various factors, including the 2024 Chinese New Year holiday from February 10 to 17. For context, in 2023, the festival transpired in January. Considering the substantial sales dip, it seems that the intensifying price cuts in China also had a significant adverse effect on BYD’s global sales performance.
Plug-in car sales results – February 2024
According to BYD’s announcement, it sold a total of 122,311 new energy vehicles (NEVs) in February 2024. Of that total, passenger plug-in car sales accounted for the majority of 121,748 (down 36%)
Battery-electric vehicles’ (BEVs) sales substantially declined by 39% YoY to 54,908, while plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) dropped 34% to 66,840 units. Refer to the table below:
| Powertrain | Sales | YoY Change |
| BEVs | 54,908 | down 39% |
| PHEVs | 66,840 | down 34% |
| Total | 121,748 | down 36% |
On the other hand, BYD’s commercial plug-in cars only sold 563 units in the same period.
It is also worth noting that the Chinese NEV giant exported some 23,291 plug-ins of the total NEV sales last month, indicating a 55% YoY increase.
YTD sales
For reference, here are BYD’s passenger plug-in car sales results in January to February 2024:
| Powertrain | Sales | YoY Change |
| BEVs | 160,212 | down 1% |
| PHEVs | 162,555 | down 10% |
| Total | 322,767 | down 6% |
In hindsight, BYD’s passenger plug-in car sales reached more than 3 million units in 2023 (up 62% YoY).
Top models
As expected, the Song family (BEV + PHEV) was the largest contributor to BYD’s sales last month, with 35,273 units. The Qin family followed with 16,191 units, while the all-electric BYD Dolphin ranked third with 13,725 units. Presented below is the ranking:
| Ranking | Model | Sales |
| 1 | Song family (BEV + PHEV) | 35,273 |
| 2 | Qin family (BEV + PHEV) | 16,191 |
| 3 | BYD Dolphin | 13,725 |
| 4 | BYD Seagull | 13,392 |
| 5 | BYD Yuan | 8,583 |
BYD launches price cuts in China, further intensifying the price war
BYD recently launched new variants of two of its sedans, Qin Plus and Chaser 05, with lower price tags to beat petrol-powered cars in China.
The Qin Plus Glory Edition DM-i (PHEV) variant starts at only 79,800 yuan ($11,000), indicating a 20% price drop from the prior version. Meanwhile, the EV variant has a price range of 109,800 yuan ($15,200) to 138,800 yuan ($19,400).
The DM-i variant’s pricing essentially made the model 15% cheaper than the base-level Lavida and 40% less than the Corolla.
All that said, it would be interesting to watch how BYD would advance again as the world’s largest BEV maker in 2024 and beyond, considering how it successfully beat Tesla in the fourth quarter of 2023. However, if this sales drop trend persists, it would be harder for the Chinese electric automaker to overthrow the American pioneer.
