On September 2nd, BYD announced that its August passenger car sales volume was 173,977 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 157.2%. Since entering the third quarter, BYD’s passenger car sales have continued to rapidly climb, with sales exceeding 160,000 vehicles in July and exceeding 170,000 vehicles in August. As a new energy vehicle blogger and a Zhihu answerer, it is clear to me that whenever BYD releases its sales figures, it will inevitably become a hot topic.
Some people may say that this hot topic was bought, but it is easy to see the traffic and engagement of this topic. As a low-level blogger and a small transparency answerer, I posted a discussion on BYD’s sales volume and at one point I even suspected that my comment section was going to explode.
These figures undoubtedly indicate that BYD has become the hottest brand in the current new energy vehicle market, and this popularity is not like the single-product explosive sales of some foreign brands, but rather several of BYD’s main models have entered the explosive sales stage, figuratively speaking, it has ignited the entire product line.
The entire product line is taking off
BYD’s current sales situation should be in a very rare situation of sales volume equaling production capacity. From BYD’s production and sales report, we can see that BYD’s new energy vehicle production in August was 175,400 vehicles, and its sales volume was almost the same at 174,900 vehicles. This means that almost every car produced is sold immediately. Even looking at the “Super Hybrids” of BYD, which have special advantages, this advantage is even more obvious. The monthly production volume is only 89,000 units, but the sales volume has reached 91,300 units. It has already reached an exaggerated situation where production capacity cannot keep up with sales, figuratively speaking, people are waiting to buy with money in their hands.
Not only in terms of data, but also in the actual sales process.
Among the seven star models on sale, except for the Destroyer 05, which has sold less than 10,000 units, and the Tang, which has sold just over 10,000 units, the sales of other models are among the top in the same level of competitors. Especially with the best-selling models like Song, Qin, and Dolphin, they have become phenomenon-level products.
From the sales of Song, Qin, and Dolphin, it can be seen that there is still a great demand in the market for compact or AA-level products with strong product power. In fact, these products are also very suitable for pure electric or DM scenarios in pure electric mode.As the flagship sedan of BYD, Han bears the mission of pushing the BYD brand to a higher level. Through continuous innovation, Han has gradually moved from the mid-20s to the mid-30s range in terms of both price and product functionality, achieving excellent sales along the way. This upgrade of the BYD brand has been very successful, with even the later Han DM-i series having strong competitiveness. Hopefully, the strategies of Wangchao and Haiyang can also differentiate them fully.
Full-range expansion of channels
Nowadays, people joke and call BYD “Di Wang” when discussing its automobile sales. However, the ferocity of “Di Wang” does not lie in these astonishing figures of sales reports but lies in BYD’s inventory of over 700,000 orders. At the current rate of production, it will take over six months to fulfill these orders, which is a terrifying situation and may be unprecedented globally. If we consider the future launches of products such as “Hai Bao,” “Hai Shi,” “Destroyer 07,” and “Tang DM-p,” Byd’s sales data is expected to continue to climb.
In fact, BYD is still proactively expanding its global influence and channel ends. In August, BYD sold 5,092 passenger cars in overseas markets, and its market map is rapidly expanding. In the first ten days of August, BYD announced the entry of its passenger cars into the Thai market and held the launch ceremony of the Yuan PLUS in Cambodia. At the end of August, BYD announced that it would introduce multiple models such as Han, Tang, and Yuan PLUS to the European market and will debut at the Paris Motor Show in October.
Berthold Huber, BYD’s European Managing Director, said that BYD’s debut in Japan was undoubtedly a key move. As a traditional country with deep accumulation in hybrid technology and even mass production of immd, BYD’s appearance could undoubtedly become a major event. This was closely related to its core competitive product technology. BYD’s “shipmate” said at the launch ceremony: “As the world’s earliest company to research and develop new energy vehicles, BYD has been committed to the green dream for 27 years and mastered the core technologies of the entire industry chain, such as batteries, motors, electric control, and vehicle-grade chips. Today, with the support and expectation of Japanese consumers, we bring new energy passenger cars to Japan. BYD and Japan share a common green dream, which brings us and Japanese consumers closer.”
Therefore, whether BYD’s “mass line” approach, which is tightly grasping core technology, can truly win the recognition of most people, seems to be giving us a new answer with the explosive growth of domestic sales and the entry into the Japanese market.
Rapidly Improving Brand Image
Previous: How could you buy BYD? (lower tone)
Now: How could you buy BYD? (rising tone)
The same sentence carries a completely different meaning. With the surge in sales, the brand image of BYD has rapidly improved, evolving from a traditional mid-tier fuel brand to a global leader in new energy.
In fact, a substantial part of the improvement of a company’s brand comes from the improvement of its values. The best values are the ones that fulfill responsibilities. Recently, the Star Planet Institute and BYD jointly produced a documentary called “The Last Glacier.” You can watch it if you have the chance. Not only does it showcase beautiful scenery, but more importantly, it brings about the consideration of how we should live our lives: what should we leave to future generations? Exploitation or sustainable development? BYD’s answer is the creation of the first zero-carbon park headquarters among all Chinese automobile brands.
Also, Ms. Li Ke, the Executive Vice President of BYD announced a donation of 500,000 shares to support the establishment of a blood disease research center in Shenzhen Hospital of Peking University. Despite the current economic downturn, BYD has further increased its recruitment of graduates to address the employment issue. Moreover, BYD has donated 5 million yuan to assist earthquake-stricken areas. These events are some of BYD’s numerous reflections of its good values and positive display of fulfilling social responsibilities. From my personal perspective, they signify more meaningful expressions of their values than simply participating in celebrity sponsorship activities.
Whether it is an individual or a company, the future competitiveness must come from values and execution. At this moment, BYD is demonstrating a relentless acceleration in values and competitiveness.
The vast sea of stars is every boy’s dream. The boundless ocean after the dynasty might just be the new stage for BYD.
This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.