Amid soaring demand for electric cars, Chinese multinational automobile manufacturer BYD has reported an impressive jump of nearly 200 per cent in its May 2021 domestic sales. During the month of May this year, BYD managed to sell a total of 31,681 units of passenger plug-in cars in China. The figure represents an increase of 199 per cent from the corresponding month of previous year.

That's the highest number of EVs the Chinese manufacturer sold in around 2.5 years and the second-best monthly performance ever reported by the company. The best monthly performance was reported in December 2018. Thus, the strong sales in May allowed the manufacturer to achieve the best result in the last few quarters. It may be noted here that the onset of COVID-19 led to slow down in EV sales and decrease in government subsidies after December 2018 also impacted overall sales for EVs.

Plug-in cars accounted for nearly 70 per cent of total number of vehicles sold by the Chinese manufacturer during the month of May. The previous best was 81 per cent, which was achieved in December 2018.

BYD car sales breakdown shows that the Chinese company sold 15,448 units of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in May 2021, up 87 per cent year-over-year. PHEVs sales jumped 458 per cent year-over-year to settle at 12,970 units.

In the first five months of this year, the manufacturer sold 110,095 units of plug-in vehicles (up 148 per cent year-over-year) in the domestic market.

When it comes to electric models, BYD Han EV sold 5,763 units (32,864 YTD), while the BYD Qin+ DM PHEV, BYD Han PHEV, BYD e2, and BYD D1 sold 5,542 units (12,107 YTD), 2,451 units (10,981 YTD), 3,195 units (8,713 YTD), and 2,172 units (8,019 YTD), respectively.

The BYD Qin EV + Qin Pro EV attracted 1,470 (7,025 YTD) buyers, while the BYD Tang PHEV, BYD Song PHEV, BYD Qin Plus EV, BYD Yuan EV, BYD Song EV, and BYD Tang EV sold 1,885 units (6,720 YTD), 3,009 units (5,867 YTD), 3,263 units (4,824 YTD), 1619 units (3,420 YTD), and 416 units (2,198 YTD), respectively.

The aforementioned data showed that the all-electric BYD Han continued to be the top-seller. However, the plug-in hybrid Han lost its top spot in the list of top-selling PHEVs. Now, it is behind the Qin+ DM -- the latest Qin plug-in hybrid with the BYD Blade Battery.