BYD sales slump in wake of reduced EV subsidies

Sales at BYD Co., China’s largest electrified-vehicle maker, slumped for the sixth straight month in December after Beijing slashed subsidies for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids in June.

BYD’s December deliveries fell 38 percent to 43,179 as weak demand for its electrified products eclipsed increased sales of gasoline vehicles. 

Deliveries of gasoline vehicles jumped 31 percent to 30,080 last month. But sales of EVs and plug-in hybrids plunged 72 percent to 13,099, according to numbers BYD disclosed this week. 

BYD’s vehicle deliveries totaled 461,399 for all of 2019, a decline of 11 percent from a year earlier. 

The company’s 2019 sales of EVs and plug-in hybrids dropped 7.4 percent to 229,506 while deliveries of gasoline vehicles declined 15 percent to 231,893. 

Beijing, fulfilling a pledge to phase out subsidies for electrified vehicles at the end of 2020, cut subsidies for EVs by more than 60 percent and halved subsidies for plug-in hybrids in June.