BYD again tops world EV sales list
The BYD e6 pure electric.
Chinese automaker BYD continues to be the global best seller of electric cars.
The private company has topped the world in EV sales for the past three years.
BYD, which stands for “Build Your Dreams”, led plug-in “new energy vehicle” (NEV) sales lists for 2017, delivering 113,669 of them, up 13.4% on the previous year.
Its 2017 sales numbers are contained in data released last month by the Chinese Passenger Car Association and summarised on the Gasgoo China Automotive News site last month, Green Car Reports says.
The BYD total includes about 4700 Denza electric cars made through its joint venture with Mercedes-Benz.
Most of BYD’s cars are delivered in China, the company also making battery cells.
All BYD vehicles are highway capable.
Green Car
Reports says China plans to end its incentives for EVs which cannot operate at a sustained speed of more than 100km/h.
That is likely to cut sales of low-speed and neighbourhood EVs substantially.
The EV sales runner-up is BAIC, with 103,199 registrations, ahead of Tesla by less than 100 units (103,122 deliveries for 2017).
BMW came in at 97,057 units – mostly plug-in hybrids – then Chevrolet with 54,308 (Bolt EV battery-electrics and Volt plug-in hybrids).
The rest of the world top 10 comprises Nissan, Toyota, Roewe (SAIC), Volkswagen, and Zhidou, with a mix of plug-in hybrids and battery-electric models.
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