Shanghai (ZXZC)- BYD's new plant in Jinan city, the capital of China's Shandong province, has already started operation with the first vehicle, a Song Pro DM-i SUV, rolling off the production line on Nov. 30, according to a local media outlet.

The recent move marks a major step for BYD's expansion of vehicle production capacity, which is being made to meet the ever-growing demands.

Located at Qingning Industrial Park, the new factory covers an area of 4,300 mu (2.867 million square meters) and a floorage of 1.85 million square meters. It involves a total investment of 15 billion yuan ($2.155 billion) and features a planned annual production capacity of 300,000 vehicles, which is halved for the first and second phases.

The second phase of the Jinan plant is expected for operation in June next year.

Aside from the greater efforts to strengthen its domestic business, BYD is also working on boosting business deployment overseas. On November 29, BYD unveiled its all-electric Han EV sedan and Tang EV SUV at a test drive event in Mexico. Meanwhile, BYD announced its partnership with eight local dealers, expecting to introduce its top-of-the-line new energy vehicles (NEVs) to the Mexican market in 2023. 

BYD Company Limited announced on last Friday its monthly sales hit another record high of 230,427 units in Nov. 2022, surging 134.32% from the previous year and also rising 5.79% from the previous month.

For the first eleven months of this year, BYD saw its cumulative vehicle sales zoom up 154.8% from a year earlier to 1,633,346 units, 99.7% of which were contributed by its NEV sector.