The Chinese plug-in electric vehicle manufacturer BYD is ramping-up production at a very high rate, but it might be just the prelude to something even bigger.
In June, the company sold in China or exported almost 134,000 plug-in cars, which is over three times more than a year ago and roughly 20,000 more than in May. The company's chairman and president Wang Chuanfu noted that the electrification of the automotive industry is progressing quicker than previously anticipated.
The Chinese media reports that BYD soon might produce 300,000 plug-in cars per month. According to Jiemian (via CnEVPost), the volume of 300,000 units is expected as soon as in August, which would be shocking, considering that after many years on the market, BYD sold a total of fewer than 600,000 units in all of 2021.
The article is based on unofficial sources, which indicate a cumulative order backlog of more than 700,000 units and new plants coming online.
As of now, BYD has six manufacturing plants in China, including sites in Shenzhen, Xi'an, Changsha, Changzhou, Fuzhou and Hefei.
The Hefei site is a new one, which started production in late June, so it will be a direct expansion of the manufacturing capacity.
The Changsha plant has been halted for two months this year, but resumed normal production in early June.
The plant in Fuzhou is a plant acquired from failed local carmaker Dorcen Motor, which will be converted from ICE to plug-in car production with a target of more than 200,000 annually at some point in the future. BYD Dolphin is expected to enter production in Fuzhou later this year.
On top of the six plants mentioned above, out of which some were not producing plug-ins yet, the company is building three more production bases in Zhengzhou, Jinan and Xiangyang. Two of them, Jinan and Zhengzhou, are expected to be operational by the end of 2022.
We don't know how accurate the Chinese media reports are, but in general, it seems that BYD is conducting some serious investments in factories and sooner or later it should translate into a much higher volume. Whether it will be 300,000 in August or not is not that much important.
The important thing is that in the near future, BYD might be potentially able to produce a few million plug-in electric cars annually. Usually, BYD sales are divided more or less equally between all-electric and plug-in hybrids.
