BYD sales hit new high in June after China’s top EV maker slashed prices

BEIJING – BYD’s sales climbed to a fresh monthly high for 2025 after a round of price cuts, though the move sparked scrutiny from the government authorities and drew criticism from industry groups.

The Chinese car-making juggernaut sold 377,628 passenger vehicles in June, including 206,884 battery electric cars.

That was up 11 per cent from a year earlier, according to a statement on July 2. But sales barely grew month on month, placing greater pressure on BYD’s second-half strategy to hit its annual target for 5.5 million deliveries.

The incremental rise in sales takes BYD’s performance through June to 2.1 million units, but that means it needs to sell 559,000 units for each of the remaining six months on average

At the same time, rival Geely Automobile Holdings sold more than 193,000 cars in June, a 59 per cent year-on-year increase.

The showing prompted Geely to raise its delivery target for 2025 by 11 per cent to three million.

The sales figures signal that BYD’s discounting of as much as 34 per cent across some models in late May did not give it the sales bump it had hoped for.

In its top-selling home market of China, the electric vehicle giant’s passenger car sales have declined for three straight months, and the scrutiny that has come alongside its price cuts clouds the outlook for the second half.

Investor qualm about the hit to profit margins has wiped more than US$20 billion (S$25.5 billion) from the company’s market value and the aggressive discounts have attracted the ire of policymakers, who chided the industry for “rate race competition” and warned car companies they should self-regulate on prices.

Still, even with domestic momentum in China slowing, BYD has managed to sustain strong growth in Europe.

Data released by Jato Dynamics indicated the Chinese automaker almost matched Tesla’s European registrations in May, building on its initial outperformance of its US rival in April.

It nearly quadrupled European sales in the first four months of 2025, figures from researcher Dataforce show.

Pressured by regulators, BYD has ended some discounts in China and joined a collective industry pledge to standardise bill payments for suppliers to 60 days as the authorities scrutinise the use of supply chain financing as a form of debt.

BYD meanwhile has shelved plans to build a major plant in Mexico over geopolitical tensions and uncertainty stemming from US President Donald Trump’s trade policies.

The company remains interested in expanding in the Americas but has no timeline to make a new investment, BYD executive vice-president Stella Li said in an interview on July 2 in the Brazilian state of Bahia, where the company is opening its first factory outside Asia.

“Geopolitical issues have a big impact on the automotive industry,” Ms Li said. “Now everybody is rethinking their strategy in other countries. We want to wait for more clarity before making our decision.”

Mr Trump had announced sweeping tariffs on dozens of US trading partners and separate taxes on certain imports including autos, upending industry supply lines. 

General Motors in June said it would spend US$4 billion in a plan to move production of several pick-up and sport utility vehicle models from factories in Mexico to the United States. BLOOMBERG