Wenyi Zhang
Research expert covering Greater China
BYD Auto - statistics & facts
BYD Company Ltd. (BYD Group), known by its acronym "Build Your Dreams," was founded by Wang Chuanfu in 1995 in Shenzhen, China as a privately held manufacturing company. Today, BYD is not only a leading producer of rechargeable batteries but also of automobile and cell phone components. Two principal subsidiaries, namely BYD Auto Co., Ltd., and BYD Electronics (International) Co., Ltd., were established in 2003 and 2007, respectively. As a pioneer in sustainable development, BYD operates in more than 50 countries, delivering renewable energy solutions worldwide. By the end of 2021, the number of patents granted to BYD amounted to 19,837 in China and 3,411 overseas. In return, BYD's revenues have been significantly growing, surging to more than 600 billion yuan in 2023. Achieving this level of performance is directly linked to the significant investments in the research and development of new technologies, evidenced by the 39.9 billion yuan in R&D spending that year.
As BYD Group continues to consolidate its position in the domestic NEV market, its overseas business is also proliferating. In 2021, BYD launched its passenger NEV for the first time in Norway, thus kicking off its entry into the European market.
In terms of BYD's best-selling DM models, "Song Plus" and "Qin Plus" had sales of more than 636,000 units and 456,000 units, respectively, in 2023, ranking the second and the fourth among the best selling electric vehicle models worldwide.
A Pioneer in New Energy Vehicles (NEVs)
The growing global demand for new energy vehicles (NEVs) drives BYD's thriving vehicle manufacturing business. In 2021, BYD sold 320,810 pure battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and 272,935 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), a 145 percent and 468 percent year-on-year increase, respectively. In the same year, BYD became the fastest-growing automaker worldwide for NEV sales, and its global NEV market share increased to 8.8 percent. As the best-selling NEV brand in China, BYD also ranked first among global NEV manufacturers by units sold in 2023, with the sales revenue of new energy vehicles exceeding 412 billion yuan. The drivers of such outstanding sales performance are BYD's leading NEV technologies, namely the "DM-i Super Hybrid," "Blade Battery," and "e Platform 3.0", etc.As BYD Group continues to consolidate its position in the domestic NEV market, its overseas business is also proliferating. In 2021, BYD launched its passenger NEV for the first time in Norway, thus kicking off its entry into the European market.
BYD's best-selling passenger NEVs
BYD's NEVs sales growth is primarily attributed to the sales of passenger NEV products, with revenues of approximately 406.6 billion yuan in 2023. BYD's passenger NEV products are presently available in two series, which are the "Dynasty" series ("Qin", "Han", "Tang", "Song" and "Yuan") and the "Ocean" series ("Dolphine", "Quzhujian 05"). Both series comprise several pure-electric models (EV models) and plug-in hybrid models (DM models) and cover sedans, SUVs, and MPVs. Dynasty series is by far the best seller, with sales of Song and Qin reaching approximately 1.15 million and 600,000 units, respectively, as of April 2022. Meanwhile, BYD’s ocean-themed products are also growing, for example, the “Dolphin” series was launched in August 2021 and attained sales of 70,000 units as of April 2022. In the coming year, BYD plans to launch more products to this line, namely "Seal", "Seagull", "Sea Lion" "Destroyer" and "Navy Ship."In terms of BYD's best-selling DM models, "Song Plus" and "Qin Plus" had sales of more than 636,000 units and 456,000 units, respectively, in 2023, ranking the second and the fourth among the best selling electric vehicle models worldwide.
