aims to sell at least 3 million vehicles this year and strives to reach 3.6 million, the company's chairman previously said.

BYD sold a record 262,161 new energy vehicles (NEVs) in July, bringing its January-July total to more than 1.5 million vehicles, half of its target for the year.

The company's NEV sales in July were up 61.30 percent from 162,530 units in the same month last year and up 3.6 percent from 253,046 units in June, according to data released today.

In the January-July period, BYD sold 1,517,798 NEVs, up 88.81 percent year-on-year.

BYD ceased production and sales of cars powered entirely by internal combustion engines in March last year, switching to focus on plug-in hybrids and pure electric vehicles.

BYD's NEVs include passenger cars as well as commercial vehicles, with sales of new energy passenger cars totaling 261,105 units in July, up 60.96 percent from 162,214 units a year earlier and up 3.74 percent from 251,685 units in June.

BYD's new energy commercial vehicles sold 1,056 units in July, up 234.18 percent from 316 units in the same month last year but down 22.41 percent from 1,361 units in June.

Of these passenger NEVs, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) sold 134,783 units, up 66.42 percent from 80,991 units a year ago and up 5.14 percent from 128,196 units in June.

Its passenger plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) stood at 126,322 units, up 55.52 percent from 81,223 units a year ago and up 2.29 percent from 123,489 units in June.

In July, BYD sold 18,169 NEVs in overseas markets, up 72.45 percent from 10,536 in June. The company released its first overseas sales figures for NEVs in 2022 July.

In addition to being China's largest NEV company, BYD is also China's second-largest power battery maker.

BYD's installed base of power and energy storage batteries amounted to about 12.406 GWh in July, up 70.25 percent from 7.287 GWh in the same month last year and up 4.99 percent from 11.816 GWh in June.

BYD aims to sell at least 3 million vehicles this year and aims to reach 3.6 million, the company's chairman and president Wang Chuanfu said in late March.

BYD expects H1 profit to rise as much as 225.43% year-on-year to $1.64 billion