BYD on track to top 2024 sales goal and outsell Ford, Honda

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - China's top electric vehicle producer BYD is set to show further market share gains when November vehicle sales data is released on Monday, putting it on course to exceed its annual goal and overtake Ford and Honda in global sales.

BYD has been on an extraordinary expansion this year, growing capacity and undertaking a massive hiring spree to turbocharge revenue, which overtook EV leader Tesla in the third quarter.

Aided by robust sales in China that continued in recent months, BYD is now on course to beat its annual sales target of 4 million vehicles, more than Japan's Honda and Detroit-based Ford in 2024 worldwide sales.

The Chinese electric vehicle giant delivered 3.76 million vehicles in the first 11 months this year including 506,804 units sold in November.

Its strong sales, led by a competitive lineup of models with its latest plug-in hybrid technology, are likely to show the firm added more market share when the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) releases industry-wide November vehicle sales data.

As of October, BYD's share of the China auto market, which makes up more than 90% of its total sales, stood at 16.2%, up from 12.5% in 2023, according to the CPCA data. By comparison, Volkswagen's two joint ventures with SAIC and FAW Group took a combined 12.5% market share in the January-October period, compared with 14.2% last year.

If that sales momentum continues, BYD could sell more than 6 million units in the next 12 months, which would put it on par with the world's leading automaker groups such as General Motors and Stellantis.

The Chinese firm aims to deliver 5-6 million cars in 2025, Citi analysts said in a recent note after a meeting with the automaker's management.

BYD didn't respond to a request for comment.

During August to October, the automaker added nearly 200,000 units in production capacity and hired 200,000 workers for auto and part manufacturing, an executive said in November.

The total number of BYD employees was close to one million as of September, up from around 703,500 at the end of 2023.

Its efforts to boost scale have helped it outpace rivals in growth, better control costs and win a brutal price war in China that has squeezed many foreign automakers. BYD has asked dozens of its suppliers for price cuts, according to a recent state-owned media report.

In the latest sign of foreign car makers' deepening woes in China, GM said last week it would take more than $5 billion in charges on its China operation due to restructuring and declining value of its joint venture that has suffered losses and declining sales.

(Reporting by Zhang Yan, Qiaoyi Li and Brenda Goh; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Lincoln Feast.)