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BYD Expects to Sell 1.2 Million NEVs Next Year, 30,000 Dolphins a Month

When BYD revealed the Dolphin, it really impressed us. In a press conference, even BYD’s CEO said he was amazed by what his company has created. BYD believes it will sell 1.2 million NEVs in 2022, and a big chunk will be the Dolphin units: up to 30,000 units per month, or 360,000 per year.
Wang Chuanfu thinks the BYD Dolphin may sell around 30,000 units per month 11 photos
Photo: BYD
BYD DolphinWang Chuanfu thinks the BYD Dolphin may sell around 30,000 units per monthBYD DolphinBYD DolphinBYD DolphinBYD e-platform 3.0BYD e-platform 3.0BYD e-platform 3.0BYD Dolphin (EA1)Wang Chuanfu, BYD's CEO
Wang Chuanfu’s confidence in the new EV is well funded. Equipped with a Blade Battery – able to endure 1.2 million kilometers – it works with 800V, which allows speedy charging – 150 kilometers (93 miles) more range in just 5 minutes with suitable fast chargers.

Slightly larger than a Honda Fit/Jazz, the Dolphin has a wheelbase comparable to that of a Honda Civic, which means it offers loads of room. All that comes with a low price tag: RMB100,000 ($15,704 at the current exchange rate). That may make it the first EV that is really competitive with combustion-engined cars.

Chuanfu said in the press conference that he thought BYD would sell around 6,000 units of the compact car per month. Now, he sees the potential to increase that to something between 20,000 to 30,000 units per month. The BYD CEO also told Chinese journalists not to publish that, but he did not ask everyone in the room to keep it a secret, so here we are.

BYD’s new expectations for the Dolphin are probably more related to manufacturing restrictions than the actual sales possibilities for the electric hatchback. It is also only Chuanfu expects for the Chinese market. If BYD makes enough Dolphins to export them, it could sell way more than 30,000 cars per month. The good news is that BYD is working on that.

The company recently finished its Changzhou factory, which it expects to produce 200,000 pure electric vehicles per year. Thanks to Min.News, we already know which cars BYD will make there. Still using codenames, the company will manufacture four models in its new plant: the EM2E, SC2E, EK, and UX.

While these last two are luxury vehicles with 4.77 meters (187.8 inches) in length, the other two are high-volume production EVs. The EM2E is about the same size as Dolphin’s largest version: 4.15 m (163.4 in) long and 1.76 m (69.3 in) wide. It also has the same wheelbase (2.70 m, or 106.3 in) and height (1.57 m, or 61.8 in), which suggests it may be another version of this EV.

The SC2E is 4.45 m (175.2 in) long, 1.82 m (71.7 in) wide, 1.64 m (64.6 in) tall, and has a 2.64 m (103.9 in) wheelbase. With these dimensions, it is probably a sedan. It will use the e-platform 3.0, as the most recent BYD vehicles do.

Including this new factory, expanding its Shenzhen plant, and investing in Fuzhou will give BYD the capacity to produce 500,000 more EVs. Suppose its other e-platform 3.0 products are as successful as the Dolphin is proving to be. In that case, this capacity increase may soon prove to be insufficient, especially if BYD considers selling them abroad – which is almost a given.
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About the author: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo
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Motoring writer since 1998, Gustavo wants to write relevant stories about cars and their shift to a sustainable future.
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