BYD quits the combustion engine

BYD has announced they will only produce electric cars and plug-in hybrids from now on. Without much notice, the Chinese manufacturer has discontinued the production of petrol cars: The last pure combustion engine apparently rolled off the production line in February.

BYD announced that it had stopped the production of fuel vehicles “in line with strategic development requirements”. In the automotive sector, the manufacturer wants to concentrate only on the business with new energy vehicles – i.e. plug-in hybrids and purely electrically powered vehicles – according to the stock exchange announcement.

At least in the passenger car market, the step is manageable for the manufacturer. In February, BYD sold 90,268 passenger cars, of which 87,473 were NEVs – 96.9 per cent of all BYD cars already had an electric motor in the drivetrain. In the stock exchange release, BYD also announced the figures for March: The manufacturer sold 106,658 New Energy Vehicles, of which 106,118 were passenger cars and 540 commercial vehicles. The pure combustion vehicles are already listed as zero in the March statistics.

However, BYD is not withdrawing completely: not only will the petrol engines continue to be needed for the plug-in hybrids, but the company will also continue to produce combustion engine components for the aftersales business in order to be able to fulfil its service and warranty promises.

BYD had not announced the move, but the phasing out of internal combustion engines does not come as a surprise: Chinese media already reported last year about corresponding plans that are to be implemented “in 2022 at the earliest”.

The reports at the time were commented on by Wang Chuanfu, CEO and president of BYD. Wang stated that the general trend that New Energy Vehicles will replace pure combustion vehicles “is already set” – alluding mainly to the regulatory situation. However, he went on record to say that he expected a long transition period within NEVs from plug-in hybrids to pure electric vehicles.

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