BYD’s annual earnings surge 81% to all-time high on record EV deliveries, warns of weak consumer demand and global headwinds
- BYD had flagged its 2023 earnings at between 29 billion yuan and 31 billion yuan in a late January filing
- The firm has cut the price of its e2 model to less than 100,000 yuan, making it BYD’s fifth model to sell below that threshold amid a price war
BYD, the world’s largest electric-vehicle (EV) maker by sales, said earnings rose last year to an all-time high on the back of record deliveries and cost-cutting measures. While growth remains assured, it cautioned about weak consumer spending and a cloudy global outlook.
Earnings jumped 81 per cent to 30.04 billion yuan (US$4.17 billion) from a year earlier, the highest on record, the carmaker said in a filing to the Hong Kong and Shenzhen stock exchanges on Tuesday. Analysts who track the stock had forecast 30.5 billion yuan of profit, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The Shenzhen-based carmaker, which counts Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway among its shareholders, said revenue climbed 42 per cent to 602.3 billion yuan in 2023 following record deliveries of new energy vehicles (NEVs). These include pure battery-run EVs, plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell vehicles.
“In the automotive sector, we will strengthen the research and development and independent control of core technologies, and continue to enhance product competitiveness,” Wang Chuanfu, chairman and CEO, in a statement on Tuesday.
