BEIJING, April 3 (Reuters) – China’s largest electric vehicle (EV) maker BYD Co Ltd (002594.SZ) said that as of last month it stopped making combustion engine vehicles and now produces full electric and heavily electrified plug-in hybrid cars only.
“In the future, BYD will focus on pure electric and plug-in hybrids in the automobile sector,” the company said in a statement filed to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Sunday.
BYD will not completely stop making gasoline engines since smaller highly efficient engines will continue to be used in plug-in hybrid cars.
BYD is among six carmakers – the others being Volvo, Ford, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar Land Rover – to have signed up to a global campaign to phase out combustion engine vehicles by 2040.
BYD sold 104,878 units of new energy vehicles (NEV) in March, surging from just 24,218 units in the same month a year earlier, and marking its highest monthly sales ever. Last month’s sales comprised 53,664 pure EV and 50,674 plug-in hybrid cars and 540 commercial NEV cars.
