Tesla‘s rival Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD has reported a more than fivefold jump in net income for the first quarter as the Warren Buffett-backed Chinese group shook off a rabid price war and slower sales growth that hit foreign and local rivals in China.
Net profit for the first three months of the year was 4.13 billion yuan ($596.56 million), up 410.9% from 808.41 million yuan a year earlier, on revenue up 79.8% at 120.17 billion yuan, the company said in a stock market filing.
The result beat market expectations and follows a blockbuster 400 percent jump in annual net profit in 2022. The company’s strong financial performance is the latest signal that the formidable Chinese conglomerate, which has built a vertically integrated EV supply chain from mines to chips, is challenging incumbents in the global car industry.
Foreign groups boasted about 70 percent of China’s overall car market about 10 years ago, and the country remains one of the largest markets for international carmakers. But in electric vehicles, domestic carmakers are increasingly dominant. BYD has a nearly 40 percent share of China’s EV market, following sales growth of about 80 percent from the first quarter of 2022, according to data from Shanghai consultancy Automobility.
The company boasts a 17 percent share of the EV battery market in China and 62 percent of the market for plug-in hybrids. Elon Musk’s Tesla ranked second with around 11 percent of the EV market following year-on-year sales growth of 27 percent.
VW, including its Chinese joint ventures, sits in ninth place with just 2 percent of the EV market after suffering a 5 percent year-on-year sales decline. BYD’s main listing on the Shenzhen stock exchange was steady on Friday morning, down 1 percent compared with a gain of 0.7 percent for the country’s CSI 300 index.
