BYD Co. registered its best month for car sales this year in June, after slashing prices across its range in a move that drew criticism from government authorities and industry groups.
The Chinese carmaking juggernaut sold 377,628 vehicles last month, including 206,884 passenger battery electric cars. That was up 10% from a year earlier, helping to push first-half volumes to 2.1 million units, according to a statement Tuesday.
Rival Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. meanwhile sold more than 193,000 cars in June, a 59% year-on-year increase. The showing prompted Geely to raise its delivery target for 2025 by 11% to 3 million.
BYD’s discounting of as much as 34% across some models in late May may not have resulted in the sales bump it hoped for, and has certainly come with other costs.
Investor qualm about the hit to profit margins has wiped more than $20 billion from the company’s market value and the aggressive price cuts have attracted the ire of policymakers, who chided the industry for “rate race competition” and warned car companies they should self-regulate on prices.
As domestic momentum in China slows, BYD has managed to sustain strong growth in Europe.
Data released by Jato Dynamics indicated the Chinese automaker almost matched Tesla Inc.’s European registrations in May, building on its initial out-performance 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 standardize bill payments for suppliers to 60 days as authorities scrutinize the use of supply chain financing as a form of debt.
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With assistance from Linda Lew.
