A BYD executive said the company's sales are doing well at the moment, but he hasn't heard that the sales target has been revised upward.

A BYD (HKG: 1211, OTCMKTS: BYDDY) executive denied talk that the company has raised its sales target after recent hot discussions.

“(BYD's) current orders and sales are really good, but I haven't heard about raising (the sales target),” Li Yunfei, BYD Group's general manager in charge of branding and public relations, said on Weibo today.

His Weibo was accompanied by a screenshot of text showing that Morgan Stanley analyst Tim Hsiao's team said in a September 9 research note that BYD management raised its annual sales target to 4 million units.

That means BYD raised its sales target by 400,000 units, considering it had previously guided for a sales target of about 3.6 million units, the screenshot shows.

Hsiao's team's September 9 research note was widely quoted in both Chinese and English media, and it also went viral on social media.

BYD said in a September 9 stock exchange announcement that it hosted analysts, including Hsiao, at its Shenzhen headquarters that morning.

The new energy-vehicle (NEV) maker responded to questions about August sales, overseas markets, Denza, and the energy storage business at the investor relations event, according to a meeting minute, which made no mention of sales targets.

BYD ceased production and sales of vehicles powered entirely by internal combustion engines in March 2022, shifting to focus on production of PHEVs and battery electric vehicles (BEVs).

During an investor conference on March 27, the company said it was on track to increase full-year sales by more than 20 percent in 2024 compared to 2023 levels.

That means BYD then expected to sell more than 3.63 million vehicles this year, considering it sold 3,024,417 NEVs in 2023.

In the January-August period, BYD sold 2,328,449 NEVs, up 29.92 percent year-on-year.

The 4 million-unit target means BYD will need to sell an average of about 420,000 vehicles per month in the last four months of 2024.

Looking at the current growth rate, especially the prospective growth of PHEVs, 4 million units may not be too hard to achieve.

BYD sold 373,083 NEVs in August, surpassing July's previous record of 342,383 to set a new high, according to data it released on September 1.

It sold 222,384 passenger PHEVs in August, the sixth consecutive record high since March. That's up 73.12 percent year-on-year and 5.5 percent from July.

By comparison, it sold 148,470 passenger BEVs in August, up just 1.95 percent year-on-year and 14.21 percent from July.

BYD raises 2024 sales target to 4 million units, analyst says