A few days ago, BYD announced the latest production and sales data. According to the data, BYD's new energy vehicle production and sales in January ushered in a good start, with a year-on-year increase of more than 3 times. Among them, passenger car sales reached 92,926 units, an increase of 367.65% year-on-year, and plug-in hybrid vehicles performed particularly well.
BYD production and sales data in January 2022 (Source: BYD announcement)
Plug-and-mix sales increased by 760.58% year-on-year, and the sales of pure electric new species "dolphin" exceeded 10,000
Specific to the segmentation of models, BYD pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle sales are comparable, and have achieved high growth. Among them, the plug-and-mix model was strongly promoted by the DM-i platform, and the sales volume in January was 46,540 units, an increase of 760.58% year-on-year.
In 2021, hybrid vehicles ushered in the market window period, BYD DM models became the focus of the car market, and single-month sales gradually climbed. According to the data, in 2021, BYD's plug and mix increased by 467.62% year-on-year, with a cumulative sales of 272,935 vehicles throughout the year. Based on the increased recognition of hybrid models by consumers, coupled with the imminent cancellation of the mixed green card issuance policy at the end of 2022, BYD's plug-and-mix models are expected to soar again this year.
BYD plug-in model Tang DM-i (Image source: BYD)
Looking at pure electric models, the data shows that BYD's pure electric vehicle sales in January were 46,386 units, an increase of 220.72% year-on-year. In 2021, BYD frequently introduced small and medium-sized models, accelerating the purchasing power of EV models in the consumer market. Among them, the dolphin of the Ocean Network series, the lowest price after the subsidy is only 96,800 yuan, and the sales volume has risen steadily after the release, and the sales volume began to break through 10,000 in December last year, and the sales volume reached 10,602 units in January this year.
BYD pure electric model Dolphin (Image source: BYD)
Overall, the soaring sales volume of BYD, in addition to benefiting from the good development of the new energy vehicle market, is also greatly related to its product strength and brand power. As a rare enterprise in the industry that has mastered the core technologies of the whole industry chain such as batteries, motors, electronic controls and chips, "technology maniac" is one of BYD's recognized labels. In the first three quarters of 2021, BYD's R&D expenditure was 5.234 billion yuan, an increase of 6.99% year-on-year, and the high investment in technology research and development allowed it to develop a series of world-leading forward-looking technologies, and the number of patents of more than 20,000 yuan created byBYD's explosive growth of new energy vehicle products today.
It is worth noting that BYD released the exclusive platform e platform 3.0 for pure electricity in August 2021. It is understood that the new generation of e-platform can achieve full coverage from small cars to large cars, which is expected to accelerate the development process of global intelligent electric vehicles for at least three years.
BYD e Platform 3.0 (Image source: BYD)
Released new products to increase production capacity, and reach a new level in 2022
According to the previous product planning, in 2022, BYD will implement the "Dynasty Family" + "Overseas Network" dual-vehicle tactics to continue to enrich the product matrix and further meet consumer demand.
According to previously exposed information, BYD Marine Life series will list seals, seagulls and sea lions. Among them, the Seagull is a small car, positioned lower than the Dolphin but slightly higher than the Wuling Hongguang MINI EV; the Seal positioned as a medium-sized sedan, benchmarking Tesla Model 3; Sea Lion is positioned as a medium and large SUV, benchmarking Tesla Model Y. The Marine Warship series is dominated by DM-i plug-in hybrids, in which the sedan series is named after the destroyer, the SUV series is named after the cruiser, and the MPV series is named after the landing ship. According to the plan, this year will be launched destroyer 05 and other models.
BYD Destroyer 05 (Image: BYD)
The Dynasty series will also usher in a comprehensive evolution, it is understood that Song MAX DM-i will be listed in the first quarter of this year, positioning 6-7 household MPV, the price range is 14.68-17.38 million yuan; the high-profile Han DM-i will also be sold in the first half of this year.
From the perspective of product layout, BYD has completely covered the main market of 60,000-300,000 yuan. In addition, with the enhancement of independent research and development capabilities and the improvement of brand technology content, BYD's many models have gained a firm foothold in the 200,000-300,000 yuan market, which further increases the market value of the brand and lays a solid foundation for follow-up efforts.
Some bydir models of BYD show map (Image source: BYD)
In the face of the increasingly rising new energy vehicle market, in addition to accelerating product iteration, BYD is also making further efforts to increase production capacity.
In December 2021, the signing and commencement ceremony of BYD's new energy auto parts industrial park project was held in Xi'an, with a planned total investment of 15 billion yuan, which is expected to be completed and put into operation in 2024; in January 2022, BYD signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Xiangyang City, Hubei Province, to invest in the construction of industrial park projects, covering power battery production lines and parts, zero carbon parks, new energy auto parts, etc. The industrial park will be built in three phases, with a total investment of 10 billion yuan in the first phase; shortly thereafter, BYD signed an agreement with the Shenzhen-Shantou Special Cooperation Zone Management Committee to invest an additional 20 billion yuan for the construction of the second phase of the Shenzhen-Shantou BYD Automobile Industrial Park on the basis of investing 5 billion yuan last year in the construction of the first phase of the Shenzhen-Shantou BYD Automobile Industrial Park, and the new project is planned to be a core parts production base for 600,000 new energy vehicles.
For BYD, 2022 is still a key year. According to the China Automobile Association, the sales of new energy vehicles in mainland China will reach 5 million in 2022, an increase of 47% year-on-year. Under the favorable situation, BYD has locked in a target sales volume of 1.2 million units in 2022, of which 600,000 are pure electric models and 500,000-600,000 plug-in hybrid models.