(Yicai Global) June 24 -- Reacting to a report that BYD will stop producing fossil fuel-powered vehicles, the Chinese new energy vehicle maker said it has no such plans.

Demand for autos that run on fossil fuel still exits among consumers and partner dealers, the Shenzhen-based company told Yicai Global.

BYD sold 230,000 fuel-powered vehicles last year, and this year’s internal sales are expected to be around 150,000, online industry media D1ev reported, citing the minutes of a BYD internal exchange meeting earlier today. 

The carmaker has stopped planning for fuel vehicles, which will be fully replaced by NEVs next year at the earliest, the report said, adding that this indicates that BYD will suspend production of pure fuel vehicles as early as 2022.

With increasing mature technologies in battery, motor and electronic control in recent years, EVs have surpassed fuel vehicles in terms of acceleration, noise, energy consumption, convenience of maintenance, intelligence, as well as full life cycle costs, BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu said in January. As such, the time is ripe for EVs to fully replace fossil-fueled autos.

According to data released recently by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, NEV sales hit 217,000 units in May, up 5.4 percent month-on-month and 1.6 times higher than in the same period last year.

Automobile sales, meanwhile, totaled 2.13 million, a decline of 5.5 percent month on month, or a drop of 3.1 percent on the year.

Production and sales of NEVs were 967,000 and 950,000, respectively, in the first five months of this year, both up 2.2 times from a year earlier.

During the same period, auto production and sales were 10.626 million and 10.875 million, respectively, an annual jump of 36.4 percent and 36.6 percent, respectively.

BYD previously announced that NEV sales in May tallied 32,800 units, up from 11,300 a year ago, while total sales in the first five months were 113,200, a jump of 143 percent year on year.

Shares of BYD [SHE: 002594] rose 0.7 percent to close at CNY244.89 (USD37.86) today. The Shenzhen market ended down 0.5 percent.

Editor: Peter Thomas