BYD's sales appear to have not been influenced by the ongoing chip shortage. The company also announced its new business plan to focus primarily on electric cars, as well as its discontinuation of fuel cars.

On June 2, 2022, BYD released its production and sales report for May 2022. The sales volume of new energy vehicles in this reported month was approximately 114,943. From the period of January until May 2022, the cumulative sales in this year were 507,314, up 348.11% year-over-year.

At the beginning of April, 2022, BYD announced its discontinuation of fuel vehicles. BYD will focus on pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. This sets BYD’s status of becoming the first car company to announce their discontinuation of fuel-based vehicles. 

Li Qian, secretary of BYD's board of directors, explained the reasons for discontinuation were due to the company’s new business plan and limited production capacity. BYD needed to save more space for electric vehicles.

In preparation for the discontinuation of fuel vehicles, BYD has found 6 lithium mines in Africa that may fulfill the company's needs. BYD’s calculations indicated that the current ore amount in the mines can convert into around 1 million tons of lithium carbonate. And if BYD successfully acquires the ownership of these mines, BYD would have up to 10 year's worth of battery supply.

BYD seems to be the only one in this space to not be severely affected by the ongoing chip shortage. 

Let's compare BYD’s similar companies, Geely Automobile and Changan Automobile. Both of these companies, along with BYD, were ranked as the top 3 Chinese brand car companies in terms of retail sales in Q1 2022. Yet, BYD was company with the highest sales among automakers in the new energy vehicle market in China.