BYD raises prices of electric vehicles, hybrids in home market. Here's why

Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD has increased the price of some cars in its home market as there have been changes in government subsidies and raw material costs have been volatile. Depending on the model, prices will be raised between 2,000 yuan to 6,000 yuan ($280 to $840), the company said on its official Weibo account.

BYD cited the phase out of Chinese subsidies for pure electric and hybrid vehicles at the end of the year. However, customers who pay deposits for vehicles before January 1, 2023 won’t be affected by the price hike.

In contrast to this, Tesla cut the price of China-made models last month as competition intensifies in the world’s largest market for electric vehicles. BYD continues to benefit from strong sales in its home market, selling 217,518 passenger vehicles in October, up 172% from a year earlier.

In a separate development, Chinese automaker BYD Co Ltd will start selling two new electric vehicle models in Brazil this month, betting on favorable political and environmental developments in Latin America's largest vehicle market.

The cars are the hybrid Song and the totally electric Yuan. They will be imported until new factories to make them in the northeastern state of Bahia start operations.

In October, BYD signed a letter of intent with the government of Bahia with an eye to setting up vehicle production in the industrial area left by Ford Motor Co when it closed its factory outside the capital Salvador.

The Bahia government said BYD would build electric bus and truck chassis, as well as electric cars and hybrids at three plants with an investment of 3 billion reais ($550 million), and also process Brazilian lithium for vehicle batteries for export to China. Two of the plants will go onstream in 2024 and the third in 2025, the Bahia government said at the time.