BYD's sales downturn extends to eighth straight month

SHANGHAI, May 1 (Reuters) - ‌Chinese EV giant ​BYD's ​vehicle sales fell for an eighth straight month in April, down 15.5% from a year ‌earlier and extending its longest-ever downturn as it ⁠struggles with weak demand at home.

Overseas sales of passenger vehicles ‌and pickup trucks, increasingly a ‌source of growth for BYD, jumped 35% to 130,000 vehicles last month, according to Reuters calculations based ​on a Weibo post by BYD executive Li Yunfei.

The company has not disclosed its overall sales target ⁠for this year, but has said it's "confident" about selling at least 1.5 ​million vehicles abroad.

The biggest Chinese competitor to Tesla posted its steepest profit drop since 2020 ​in the January-March period, as the ‌bulk of its sales in the budget segment priced under 150,000 yuan ($21,935.60) come under ⁠growing pressure from Geely and Leapmotor.

BYD's previous longest sales decline lasted six months amid a rollback of government electric-vehicle subsidies ⁠that ended in December 2019.

As it navigates challenges at home, where ​reduced trade-in subsidies for entry-level EVs and plug-in hybrids are expediting a shift toward premium models, BYD is launching models with ‌faster-charging batteries and building a super-fast charging network to reassure buyers of its technological ‌edge.

It is also raising the price of its in-house ⁠driving assistant system add-on ‌for EVs from Friday, ​citing rising global memory hardware costs.

(Reporting by Casey Hall and Qiaoyi Li; Editing by Joe ‌Bavier)

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