Compared to October, the 480,186 sales represent an 8.8 per cent increase. However, this is also the third consecutive month in which BYD has failed to surpass last year’s performance, falling short by 5.25 per cent. After a strong start to the year with a robust first quarter, BYD only matched the results from the same months in the previous year in July and August, while in September, October, and November, it fell below those figures.
The gap is narrowing, however. Since BYD’s sales in December last year were only marginally higher than in November, further growth of around eight per cent this year could enable the Chinese market leader to close out the year with a new monthly record.
The vast majority of the 480,186 BYD vehicles sold in November came from the passenger car segment—specifically, 474,921 new passenger cars from the manufacturer. This trend reflects the company’s overall performance: a 5.8 per cent decline compared to the previous year, but an 8.7 per cent increase over October. The commercial vehicle segment, including battery-electric buses and trucks, reached 5,265 units in November, an impressive 88 per cent increase year-over-year and 8.6 per cent higher than October.
BEV passenger cars rise as PHEVs decline
A closer look at the passenger car segment reveals that while the distribution of New Energy Vehicles in China has stabilised at roughly two-thirds battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and one-third plug-in hybrids (PHEVs, including range-extender vehicles), BYD maintains a near-equal 50:50 split. This balance reflects BYD’s growing BEV sales, as PHEVs had long dominated internally. In November, BYD sold 237,540 new BEV passenger cars and 237,381 new PHEV passenger cars. The key trend is that BEV sales increased by 19.9 per cent year-over-year and by 6.7 per cent compared to October—BYD has sold more BEVs every month this year than in 2024. Conversely, PHEV sales have been below the previous year’s levels since April, with November showing a 22.4 per cent year-over-year decline, though they did rise by 10.8 per cent compared to October.
With one month remaining in the year, BYD has sold a total of 4.182 million vehicles, an 11.3 per cent increase. This includes 4.13 million passenger cars (+10.4 per cent) and 51,399 commercial vehicles (+213.3 per cent). BEV passenger car sales have surged by 32.7 per cent to 2.066 million units, while PHEV sales have declined by 5.4 per cent to 2.065 million units.
BYD has also set a new record for passenger car exports. While the company had previously approached the 90,000-vehicle export mark twice, November saw a significant leap to 131,935 exported BYD vehicles. This represents over 57 per cent growth compared to October and a staggering 326 per cent increase year-over-year. For the year to date, BYD has sold 912,911 vehicles overseas—and with a similarly strong December, it could surpass the one-million mark.
In battery production, China’s second-largest manufacturer behind CATL also achieved solid results in November, though not a new record. The company produced 22.67 GWh of battery cells—a 23.1 per cent increase compared to November 2024 and 1.1 per cent more than in October.
cnevpost.com
This article was first published by Sebastian Schaal for electrive’s German edition.
