The Haval H6 was China's best-selling SUV for the past several years, but it has now been dethroned by BYD's Song.

(Image credit: Haval)

Chinese auto giant Great Wall Motor's hot-selling Haval brand will stop selling internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles by 2030, becoming the latest local brand to do so.

Haval aims to have 80 percent of the brand's sales be new energy vehicles (NEVs) by 2025 and to officially stop selling ICE vehicles by 2030, the brand's general manager, Li Xiaorui, said at a NEV strategy launch event in Beijing today.

In China, NEVs refer to pure electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles.

Haval becomes the latest local brand after BYD to announce an end to sales of vehicles powered entirely by ICE.

BYD stopped production and sales of fuel vehicles in March this year to focus on its pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicle business. Since then, BYD's NEV sales have exceeded 100,000 units for five consecutive months.

Great Wall Motor is seen as slow to transition at a time when China's NEV industry is growing rapidly and sales of its best-selling Haval brand of fuel vehicles have shown weakness.

The Haval H6 was the best-selling SUV in China for the past several years, but it has now been dethroned by BYD's Song.

From January to July, the Haval H6 sold 147,870 units, ranking second among all SUVs sold in China, according to data released earlier this month by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

That's a 30.7 percent decrease from 213,304 units a year ago.

For comparison, the BYD Song family ranked first with 200,357 units sold from January to July. That's up 114.9 percent from 93,246 units in the same period last year.

The Tesla Model Y sold 141,306 units from January to July, placing it third on the CPCA list, up 192.4 percent from 48,324 units a year ago.

Earlier today, China's southernmost province of Hainan announced that it will begin a complete ban on sales of conventional ICE vehicles in 2030, becoming the first Chinese province to do so.

China's Hainan to completely ban sales of ICE vehicles by 2030