BYD says its new energy vehicle sales will surpass Tesla China's in June

BYD's new energy vehicle sales will surpass Tesla China's by June this year and the company is on track to become the global new energy vehicle champion within the year, the new energy vehicle company backed by legendary US investor Warren Buffett said.

Li Yunfei, general manager of BYD passenger cars' brand and PR department, mentioned this goal at the recent DM-i Super Hybrid technology sharing session.

In fact, this is not an exaggeration, as the sales gap between BYD's new energy vehicles and Tesla China has narrowed to 183 units in April.

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BYD sold 25,662 new energy vehicles in April, ranking third in China, while Tesla ranked second with 25,845 units sold, according to data released by China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

The release of BYD DM-i series models' production capacity may be the biggest reason for BYD to overtake Tesla in sales.

Since the BYD DM-i series models were launched in January, more than 100,000 orders have yet to be delivered.

Li said the current waiting time for delivery of DM-i series models is 3.5 months. With the increase of production capacity, the waiting time for delivery is expected to be shortened to 2 months, and the production and sales balance is expected to be achieved in the fourth quarter.

On May 17, BYD apologized for the delay in delivery of DM-i models, saying the company is actively making arrangements to accelerate the capacity increase of these models.

However, the large number of orders has resulted in relatively slow vehicle deliveries. There is still an average wait time of 3.5 months for delivery of additional orders, and BYD apologizes for the inconvenience this has caused customers, the company said.

On Jan. 11, BYD unveiled DM-i Super Hybrid technology, an electric-powered hybrid technology that will enable a vehicle range of more than 1,200km and a 0-100km/h acceleration time that will be 2-3 seconds faster than that of comparable fuel vehicles.

BYD then announced three models equipped with this technology -- Qin PLUS DM-i, Song PLUS DM-i and Tang DM-i and launched pre-sale.

The Qin PLUS DM-i pre-sale price after subsidy is RMB107,800 ($16,744)-147,800, the Song PLUS DM-i pre-sale price after subsidy is RMB153,800-175,800, and the Tang DM-i pre-sale price after subsidy is RMB197,800-224,800.