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| A man cycles past an entrance to the headquarters of Chinese electric car maker BYD in Shenzhen's Pingshan district, Guangdong province, China on Oct 25, 2019. (File photo by= Reuters/Yilei Sun) |
[Asia News = Reporter Reakkana] SHANGHAI: A Chinese city has opened an investigation into a factory owned by automaker BYD over allegations that emissions from the plant were causing nosebleeds among children living nearby, Reuters reported.
Changsha city authorities said in a statement on Sunday (May 8) they had sent an investigative team to BYD's factory to look into the allegations about its emissions. BYD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Changsha city's investigation on Monday. Its shares fell 4 percent on Monday. The manufacturer is China's biggest maker of electric vehicles (EV). Its EV sales increased nearly fivefold in the first four months of 2022 compared with the same period last year, even as the country's zero-COVID policies disrupted the operations and deliveries of many of its rivals.
BYD's Changsha factory, which started up in 2012, churned out 62,500 vehicles in the first quarter, a 271 percent increase from a year ago, according to local official media Rednet. That accounted for about one-fifth of BYD's total output, according to a Reuters calculation.
