Shanghai (ZXZC)- BYD closed its year of 2020 with an annual sales volume of 426,972 units, a year-on-year decrease of 7.46%, according to the company's announcement.

Due to the impact of coronavirus pandemic, the year-on-year change in monthly sales remained negative through the first half of 2020. The single-digit decrease in full-year sales was attributed to the incessant rise during the second half of the year.

Annual new energy vehicle (NEV) sales slid 17.35% to 189,689 units. The NEV unit was posting year-over-year decrease of over 45% in monthly sales during the first six months and started rebounding from September. In December, BYD saw its NEV sales surge 120.18% over the prior-year period to 28,841 units.

BYD Han; photo credit: BYD

The BYD Han also served a driving force to the overall NEV sales. In November, the sales of the flagship model for the first time exceeded 10,000 units.

On November 12, the 20,000th Han EV rolled off the production line at BYD’s Shenzhen plant, marking a fast expansion of production capacity.

Despite the downturn in overall sales, BYD's oil-fueled vehicle sales still climbed 2.32% last year thanks to a year-over-year hike of 43.73% in SUV sales. Unlike the continuous rising movement in monthly NEV sales, the fuel-burning vehicle unit was posting decline for four straight months as of December 2020.

On January 1, 2021, BYD launched a fire new logo for passenger vehicle business, demonstrating its ambition to make the world connected by new technologies and mine the brand's new value together with users and partners.