BYD’s production declined for the second consecutive month in August, marking its first back-to-back contraction since 2020, signaling a slowdown in the Chinese EV giant’s expansion. The company made 353,090 electric vehicles and PHEVs globally last month, down 3.78% from the previous year. China sales fell 14.3%, while global sales showed slight growth.

The last time BYD saw production decline for two consecutive months was in June and July 2020. Reuters reported BYD, a major rival to Tesla, had slowed production by reducing factory shifts in China and postponed plans for new production lines. Despite global sales growth, China accounts for nearly 80% of BYD’s total sales.

BYD’s data from Monday suggests the company has only achieved 52.1% of its yearly sales target of 5.5 million units in the first eight months. Analysts at China Merchants Bank International have reduced their BYD sales forecast for the year by 5% to 4.9 million units due to increased caution about inventories. The recent drop in production and sales follows a quarterly profit decline for BYD, the first in over three years.

Despite an overall increase in EV sales and production, BYD has seen a persistent decline in PHEV production and sales since April. The company has shifted towards producing and selling more EVs than PHEVs since that time. BYD’s shares fell sharply in response to the news of the production and sales decline.

Read more at Yahoo Finance: BYD records consecutive monthly production drops for first time since 2020