BYD sold a record-breaking 341,043 electric vehicles in December and reached its annual target of 3 million deliveries in 2023. The company produced only 308,972 vehicles in December, meaning dealers had to clear most of its stock cars during the massive end-of-year sales push. Shenzhen-based automaker sold 3,024,417 vehicles in 2023, up 61.9% from the previous year.
Battery electric vehicles (BEV) have accounted for 52.3% of sales with 1.57 million units, while plugin hybrids (PHEVs) contributed 47.7% with 1.44 million units. The trend is leaning towards BEVs each month, and in December, BYD sold 56% of BEVs and 44% of PHEVs.
BYD Dolphin contributed 12% or 367,419 units of all sales in 2023, up 79% from 205,417 units in 2022. Dolphin is an all-electric hatchback sitting on e-platform 3.0, which started deliveries in 2021 and has had rock-solid numbers since then. Its competitors are ID.3, MG4 or Volvo EX30. This is the car Volkswagen wanted ID.3 to be. BYD Dolphin delivered 36,514 units in December, up 4% from November.
BYD Song was the most successful series and delivered 640,749 cars last year, up 33% from 481,607 in 2022. This accounts for 21% of all BYD sales in 2023. Unlike BYD Dolphin, Sonsong g is not a single car but a family of various BEV and PHEV models. Most of them are PHEVs:
- Song Pro DM-i
- Song Max DM-i
- Song Plus DM-i
The BEV models:
- Song Plus EV
- Song L
The Song L is a brand-new SUV in BYD’s lineup to compete with the Tesla Model Y. The best-looking BYD car launched on December 15 and delivered 10,003 units last month. This is impressive for a new car, but not surprising, as Song L received 8k orders 72 hours after the launch.
The Song series sold 84,039 vehicles in December, up 36% from 61,694 in November. Part of the reason is that Song L deliveries kicked in.
BYD Seagull sold 280,217 units of BEV entry-level hatchback in 2023. The EV with a Lamborghini-styled front face from Wolfgang Egger (yes, the Egger, former Lamborghini head of design) started deliveries in April and is doing pretty well in competing with GM-SAIC JV’s Wuling Bingo.
Seagull delivered 50,525 units in December, up 13% from 44,603 in November.
After Dolphin and Seagull, BYD Seal is the third most popular EV from the Ocean series. It sold 127,323 units in 2023. Seal sold 20,093 units in December, up 31% from last year and 1% from November. Seal started deliveries in August 2022 as a BEV, and a year later, on September 2023, it was joined with the Seal DM-i plugin hybrid version. It struggled in early 2023, but it seems the price cuts and DM-i version launch kicked up the sales in China, also, BYD pushed Seal for export.
BYD Yuan series sold 428,580 units in 2023, up 87% from 229,020 in 2022, making it the fastest-growing BYD series. The most known member of the Yuan family is BYD Yuan Plus, or Atto 3 as called on international markets, BYD’s export champion.
BYD’s subbrand sales also stepped in. The Fang Cheng Bao sold 5,712 units of their only car, the Bao 5 (Leopard 5) SUV. The deliveries started in November with 626 units and continued in December with 5,086 units. Bao 5 is off-roader EREV.
BYD’s most hardcore brand, YangWang, also sells only one car – the YangWang U8 SUV – and sold 2,001 units last year. YangWang started deliveries in November with 408 units and 1,593 units in December. Like Bao 5, YangWang U8 is EREV, as it is expected to hit international markets later in 2024. BYD didn’t say which market will be its first, but BYD Brasil announced they will start selling U8 in May. BYD U8 starts at 1.089 million yuan (153,000 USD) in China.
Exports rose 334% in 2023 as BYD shipped 242,766 electric vehicles to overseas markets. In December, BYD exported 36,095 EVs.
The ID3 is NOT a direct competitor of the dolphin… what a BS! The ID3 is one class above the dolphin!
Hi Paul, no need to be vulgar here.
The Dolphin Rider version costs 136,800 yuan and has a 130 kW motor and 401 km CLTC range. ID.3 starts at 163,800 yuan with a 125 kW motor and 450 km CLTC range, but the dealers are selling it effectively for 126k yuan. For sure they are competitors.
Also as Autonews reported, Dolphin competes with those cars in Europe:
“Its main rivals are the MG4, the Volkswagen ID3, the Citroen e-C4, the Renault Scenic E-Tech, the Peugeot e-308 and the Opel/Vauxhall Astra-e. ”
https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/byd-dolphin-takes-compact-evs-vw-renault-and-stellantis
So in Europe Dolphin got bigger motor (150 kW) and bigger battery, as ID.3 also has bigger motor and battery in Europe then in China.
good post