What’s new: Chinese automaker BYD Co. Ltd. has remained tight-lipped about this year’s sales outlook — citing pandemic challenges — even as it claimed the crown of China’s largest seller of new-energy passenger vehicles (NEVs) for 2022.
BYD “cannot make a judgment” on this year’s projected sales owing to supply chain and consumer demand uncertainties stemming from the rapidly changing Covid environment, a company representative told Caixin on Wednesday.
The refusal to give a clear answer came as the end of the government’s NEV purchase subsidies and the broader economic slowdown have fueled fears NEV sales will fall off a cliff at the beginning of this year.
It also came after several media reports said that BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu had lowered the company’s 2023 sales target to 4 million vehicles from 5 million cars.
What’s the background: In 2022, Shenzhen-based BYD more than doubled its auto sales to 1.87 million cars, about 99.5% of which were passenger NEVs, according to company data.
The actual sales figure missed BYD’s previously stated target of selling 1.92 million cars, which its Executive Vice President Lian Yubo largely attributed to a lack of production capacity in December, when many of BYD’s employees were unable to work because they contracted Covid following the government’s abandonment of its stringent pandemic control rules.
Last November, BYD announced plans to raise prices for several of its vehicle models in China from Jan. 1, citing the expiration of government subsidies and the rising costs of EV battery raw materials.
BYD in March ceased producing cars powered solely by fossil fuels after two decades, and now only manufactures NEVs and hybrid vehicles.
Contact reporter Ding Yi (yiding@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)
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