BYD has slashed its sales target for this year by as much as 16% to 4.6 million vehicles, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
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BYDhas slasheditssalestargetfor this year by as much as16%to 4.6 million vehicles, two people with knowledge of the matter said, as the Chinese EV giant facesitsslowest annualgrowthin five years and othersigns thatitsera of record-setting expansion could be drawing to a close.
China’slargest automaker told analysts in March it wastargetingsalesof 5.5 million vehicles for2025. But internally, the number has been downgraded multiple times in recent months, according to the people.
The latest figure of at least 4.6 million vehicles was communicated inside the company and to select suppliers last month to help guide planning, according to the people, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity.
Thetargetremains subject to change depending on market conditions, the people added.
The people didn’t give a reason for the cut. However, one of them said it comes asBYDfeels the heat from growing competition with rivals such as Geely Autoand Leapmotor.
Last week,BYDreported a30% dropin quarterly profit,itsfirst decline in more than three years.
BYDdid not respond to a request for comment.
The latesttarget, which has not been previously reported, is below several recently lowered forecasts from analysts. This week, Deutsche Bank said it expected BYD to sell 4.7 million vehicles, while Morningstar said it expected 4.8 million.
Thenewtargetrepresents a 7% increase from last year and would be the slowest annualgrowthsince 2020, whensalesfell by 7%.
The pared-back outlook also speaks to the deflationary pressure weighing on the world’s second-largest economy, where domestic demand has been hit by a prolonged housing downturn. In the first eight months of this year,BYDhas only met some 52% ofitsoriginal 5.5 million vehiclesalestarget.
In just a few years,BYDhas transformeditself from an EV upstart to one of the world’s most important automakers by doing much ofitsproduction in-house, allowing it to keep a lid on costs even as it rolls out cutting-edge features.
Itssalesof pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids grew ten-fold between 2020 and 2024, to 4.3 million vehicles, putting it on par with General Motors and Ford in terms of globalsales.
Yet it is now showing undeniablesigns of a slowdown, especially initsmain market China, which accounts for almost 80% ofitssalesand is in the midst of a bruising, years-old price war.
BYDhas slowed production and delayed capacity expansion atitsChinese factories, Reutersreported in June.
BYD’ssalesof economy cars – those that go for under 150,000 yuan ($21,000) and make up the bulk ofitsdomesticsales- fell 9.6% in July versus last year, according to Reuters’ analysis ofitsfiling and asalesbreakdown by Chinese auto data platform DATADIC.
By comparison, Geely’ssalesof cars in that price segment jumped 90% year-on-year in July.
Geely raiseditsannualsalestargetfor2025to 3 million vehicles from 2.71 million,itsexecutives said during an August earnings conference.
BYD’s production slid for a second straight month in August, markingitsfirst consecutive monthly contraction since 2020.
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