Two million cars in 124 days
BYD announced its 17 millionth NEV on 8 July. The 19 millionth followed on 9 November, which works out at 2,000,000 vehicles in 124 days. Divided out, that is 16,129 cars a day, 672 an hour, roughly eleven every minute, averaged across nights, weekends and holidays. The company never said when the 18 millionth car was built.
The longer curve is steeper still. BYD's first NEV came in December 2008 and the one-million mark arrived in May 2021. The ten-millionth car was built on 18 November 2024. In the two years since, output has grown by nine million units, close to 380,000 a month on average. NEV in Chinese statistics covers both battery-electric cars and plug-in hybrids.
What the Tai 9 is
The Tai 9 measures 5,270 mm long, 1,999 mm wide and 1,880 mm high, with a 3,130 mm wheelbase. That makes it 75 mm longer than the Bao 8 and the brand's largest SUV to date. It seats six in a 2+2+2 layout.
It is the first model on BYD's new DMS hybrid platform, and it will feature the second-generation Blade Battery and flash charging. Fang Cheng Bao did not publish charging figures. The equipment list includes the DiSus-A body control system with road preview, God's Eye B 5.0 driver assistance, rear-wheel steering, the iATS all-terrain recognition system, a powered split tailgate, a 30-inch panoramic display and a zero-gravity front passenger seat.
Homologation filings from August describe a 1.5-litre engine and two electric motors, one per axle, at 200 kW each, giving all-wheel drive. Battery capacity is 66.48 kWh.
A plug-in hybrid with a BEV-sized battery
That pack is the number worth pausing on. A 66.48 kWh battery is larger than the 52 kWh unit in a Renault Zoe, a car sold in Europe as a pure EV. Plug-in hybrids have quietly moved into BEV territory on capacity.
Electric range depends on consumption, which BYD has not published in CLTC terms yet. Do the arithmetic yourself: at 20 kWh/100 km the pack covers about 330 km, at 25 kWh/100 km about 266 km. Those are calculations, not manufacturer claims.
Pack cost scales with size too. Our earlier report on Bruegel's estimate that EU battery rules could add €2,100 to a 60 kWh electric car puts the regulatory cost of this pack at roughly €2,327 if the same per-kWh figure is applied. That is context for how much battery a family PHEV now carries, not a price anyone in China pays.
Pricing and rivals
Fang Cheng Bao has not disclosed reservation pricing for the Tai 9. The Bao 8 starts at 419,800 yuan, about $62,480 at the 6.7188 rate CnEVPost quotes, and the smaller Tai 7 at 189,800 yuan. The Tai 9 will sit above both.
The natural rival is Li Auto's L9, a six-seat range-extender SUV at 5,218 mm, which is 52 mm shorter than the Tai 9. Fang Cheng Bao is chasing the same urban family buyer with a bigger battery and a brand that started out selling ladder-frame off-roaders. It has also added the Formula S sedan and Formula S GT shooting brake to widen the range.
Fang Cheng Bao's sales
The sub-brand passed 600,000 cumulative sales on 1 November. It sold 43,872 cars in October, up 41.29% year on year, and 329,308 in the first ten months, up 124.99%. October alone accounted for 13.3% of the ten-month total, according to those figures.
BYD's October mix
Group sales reached 490,168 NEVs in October, up 10.97% and the highest monthly total this year, the sixth consecutive month of year-on-year growth. Against the ten-month average of 362,174 cars a month, October ran 35% above trend.
Exports were 170,194 units, up 102.84%, or 34.7% of the month's volume. Domestic sales fell 10.57% to 319,974. For January to October the total is 3,621,744 NEVs, down 2.16%, an improvement on the 3.94% decline after nine months.
Europe's duties cover BEVs, not PHEVs
The EU's definitive countervailing duties adopted in 2024 apply to battery-electric cars, with BYD hit by an additional 17.0% on top of the standard 10% import tariff. Plug-in hybrids fell outside the scope of that investigation. BYD already sells the Seal U DM-i PHEV in Europe on those terms.
Whether Fang Cheng Bao will be sold in Europe has not been announced, and the Tai 9 does not appear in our EV catalog of models available here. Reservation holders in China get six months of free flash charging, an offer with no equivalent in the European market we track. Our supercharger database of 483 locations records what drivers actually pay per kWh, and the cheapest sites are a long way from free.
Launch timing
Xiong Tianbo, general manager of Fang Cheng Bao's business division, said on 7 November that the Tai 9 would launch later this month, after an earlier window of "after 15 November". Chinese media report 19 November; the brand has not confirmed it. Fang Cheng Bao said it is building inventory before the launch to shorten delivery waits. Reservation pricing remains unpublished.
Source: https://cnevpost.com/2026/11/09/byd-19-million-nev-production-fang-cheng-bao-tai-9-reservations/