(Yicai Global) Nov. 15 -- BYD has become the first Chinese carmaker to announce a plan by which it will stop producing fossil fuel-powered vehicles.

BYD committed at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP26, to selling only new energy vehicles from 2040, the Shenzhen-based firm said in a press release on Nov. 13.

At COP26 more than 100 governments and organizations signed the Glasgow Declaration on Zero-Emission Cars and Vans to end the sale of internal combustion engines by 2035 in leading markets and by 2040 worldwide. Among them BYD, Volvo Cars, Ford Motor, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, and Jaguar Land Rover.

It makes sense that BYD is the first traditional Chinese carmaker to say it will stop producing fuel-driven cars, as its NEV sales are strong and fuel-powered car sales are weak, according to industry analysts.

BYD sold 81,040 NEVs last month, up 249 percent from a year earlier, and 418,619 units from January to October, up 212 percent. Last month, fuel-powered vehicle sales accounted for only about 10 percent of the total, down 64 percent from the same period last year.

At COP26, BYD also inked the Memorandum of Understanding on Zero-Emission Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles, which aims to achieve 100 percent zero-emission new trucks and bus sales by 2040, with an interim goal of 30 percent zero-emission vehicles sales by 2030.

Editor: Futura Costaglione