BYD shares jump on China EV maker’s record quarterly profit
BYD shares jumped the most in almost seven weeks in Hong Kong trading on Wednesday (Oct 18) after China’s biggest electric vehicle (EV) maker posted record preliminary third-quarter earnings.
The automaker’s third-quarter net income will come in as high as 11.5 billion yuan (S$2.17 billion), according to an exchange filing late Tuesday. Profits in the nine months ended Sep 30 may be between 20.5 billion yuan to 22.5 billion yuan, exceeding net income for all of 2022 of 16.6 billion yuan.
The stock rose as much as 5 per cent in early trading, the biggest gain on an intraday basis since Aug 29.
The company attributed its strong third-quarter earnings performance to record sales in the period, despite intensifying competition, which it said it is offsetting by greater cost savings and efficiency gains.
One of the reasons underpinning BYD’s success is the fact it also makes the batteries that power its electric and hybrid cars, as well as some of the semiconductor chips that go in them. That added manufacturing prowess allows BYD to control greater parts of the auto supply chain, meaning it performs better when it comes to controlling costs.
In the three months to Sep 30, BYD managed to sell almost as many fully EVs as Tesla, falling just 3,456 vehicles short of superseding the US automaker run by Elon Musk.
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Including hybrids, BYD sold a total of 822,094 vehicles for another record quarter, helping to cement its lead as China’s best-selling car brand.
BYD’s strength comes as sales growth of new-energy cars in China more broadly is decelerating.
Retail sales of new-energy vehicles in the world’s biggest autos market rose 22.1 per cent from a year earlier to 746,000 units in September, data from the Passenger Car Association (PCA) showed last week.
But as consumers in China rein in spending, more new-energy passenger cars are being exported.
China-based automakers shipped 91,000 clean vehicles abroad in September, including pure-electric and plug-in hybrids, an increase of 107 per cent from a year earlier, the PCA data showed.
Tesla ranked top with 30,566 units sent to overseas markets from its Shanghai factory, while it delivered 43,507 cars to local customers. Much of the remainder was driven by local automakers such as BYD and Shanghai Automotive Industry. BLOOMBERG
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