Buffett-backed BYD stops making oil-fuelled cars in complete shift to new-energy vehicles
- The Shenzhen-based car maker says it now only produces electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles
- BYD’s decision follows China’s pledge in 2020 to hit peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060
China’s largest new-energy vehicle (NEV) maker BYD said it stopped producing purely oil-fuelled vehicles last month and currently only makes electric and hybrid cars, as the country pushes towards its national goal of reducing carbon emissions.
“The company will focus on the businesses of battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles,” BYD said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Sunday.
The company promised to continue to produce and supply the components of its oil-fuelled vehicles to meet the needs of existing owners.
China issues plan for path to peak emissions and carbon neutral goal
The car maker, backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, has been cutting the production of oil-fuelled vehicles in recent months as the sales of its NEV models surged.
During the first three months of this year, BYD produced only 4,635 oil-fuelled vehicles, down more than 90 per cent from the same period a year earlier, according the filing. Meanwhile, the company’s NEV production jumped more than five-fold, reaching 287,530 units.
BYD said it sold more than 104,878 NEVs in March, including 53,664 pure electric vehicles and 50,674 plug-in hybrids, marking its biggest ever monthly sales.
The Shenzhen-based car marker leads China’s NEV market with a share of nearly 30 per cent in February, Tang Xuxia, an industry analyst at Guosen Securities, wrote in a recent research note.
“Our strategy adjustment is in line with the national ‘dual carbon targets’,” BYD said on its WeChat account on Sunday.