BYD’s sales of “new energy” vehicles jumped tenfold between January and April compared with the same period a year earlier, according to China Business News. An unnamed BYD spokesman said that sales growth would have been even faster if it were not constrained by insufficient production of batteries.

BYD recently projected its net profit for the first half of 2014 at between 350 and 490 million yuan ($56 million-$79 million). Chairman Wang Chuanfu said in June that the company will see a turning point in sales in the second half, expecting acceleration in the commercial vehicle sector.

The company introduced its BYD Qin, a plug-in hybrid compact sedan, last December. The model has sold nearly 4,500 units so far, and has an order backlog of more than 8,000. Projections put sales of the Qing at 20,000 this year.

Some 10,501 new energy vehicles were sold in China in the first four months of this year, up 154% from the same period a year earlier, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Separately, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced that the nation produced 3,770 new energy cars in May, up 98% from a year earlier.

Source: Want China Times