BYD, the world’s largest electric car manufacturer from China, recorded record profits last year. The Shenzen-based company reported a net profit that exploded by 81 percent on Tuesday.
In numbers 30.04 billion yuan (almost 4 billion euros). However, profit growth fell steadily over the quarters of the previous year – to just 15 percent in the last quarter. Sales in 2023 were 602.3 billion yuan – 42 percent above the previous year. Batteries for the established BYD was founded in 1995, initially produced batteries and entered the production of cars in 2003. Today the company specializes in hybrid and electric cars. Numerous Western car companies also purchase batteries for their electric cars from BYD, including BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Tesla, Toyota and Ford. In the fourth quarter of last year, the Chinese company replaced its US competitor Tesla as the largest electric car manufacturer. Tesla increased its deliveries in the three-month period to 484,507 vehicles by eleven percent compared to the previous year. Nevertheless, the Chinese trumped billionaire Elon Musk’s company with a whopping 526,409 electric cars delivered. In addition, BYD sold more than 400,000 plug-in hybrids in the fourth quarter.BYD is on a discount battleThe revised Seal electric sedan, which came onto the market on Monday, costs 5.3 percent less than the previous model. It is the 16th vehicle since the beginning of the year for which BYD has reduced the price after a facelift. BYD is reacting to the fact that the market for electric cars in China is no longer growing nearly as strongly. Last year, sales figures only increased by 21 percent – after 74 percent in 2022. Competitors such as Tesla, Geely, GAC Aion, Leapmotor and Xpeng are getting involved in the price war with BYD, but are not offering discounts anywhere near as high China-focused market researcher John Zeng of GlobalData in London said BYD could make up for the discounts with savings and with increasing exports, which are subject to higher prices. Last year, the 240,000 vehicles exported accounted for eight percent of production, and Zeng expects 300,000 to 400,000 export cars for 2024.
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