BYD first-quarter profit soars, beating Tesla on another metric

BYD’s net income in the first quarter jumped to 9.15 billion yuan (S$1.7 billion), overtaking Tesla on another key metric and signalling a robust start to the year for China’s No 1 selling car brand.

Shenzhen-based BYD’s net income was higher than the 8.1 billion yuan projected by analysts. While the carmaker’s sales of 170.36 billion yuan for the three months ended Mar 31 were up 36 per cent year on year, they fell short of analyst expectations. Tesla reported net income of US$409 million for its first quarter earlier this week, much lower than what the market had been looking for.

Considering the first three months of the year are generally the slowest for Chinese automakers, with the period containing the long Chinese New Year holiday, BYD looks set for a strong 2025. Its car sales for the quarter were just shy of one million units, putting the Chinese behemoth well on track to achieve full-year sales of 5.5 million, including 800,000 exports.

Analysts have said they expect little impact on BYD from US President Donald Trump’s auto tariffs considering the company does not sell passenger cars in the US and has solid order prospects from high growth areas like South America and parts of South-east Asia. It is also building an EV factory in Hungary that’s expected to begin production in late 2025.

Chinese automakers including BYD were front and centre at this week’s Shanghai auto show, despite a strong turnout from European rivals such as Volkswagen and BMW. BYD prominently displayed its push into higher-priced vehicles that could yield fatter margins, from its luxury sport utility vehicle the Yangwang U8L to its concept Dynasty-D series and its concept Denza Z sports car.

Earlier this week, BYD split its stock in a move to appeal to a broader number of investors, following the likes of Nvidia and Tesla. The company will distribute eight bonus shares for every 10 shares held and issue 12 capitalisation shares from reserves for every 10 shares issued. That could enable BYD to “cater to a broader group of investors,” Morgan Stanley analysts led by Tim Hsiao wrote in a note.

BYD had flagged its higher-than-expected first-quarter numbers in a filing earlier this month, days after it touted a new EV battery system that can charge for 400 km in just five minutes. The new technology will be available in the Han L and the Tang L sport utility vehicle, which will start at 270,000 yuan and 280,000 yuan, respectively, and be sold from this month.

The Tang L was at the Shanghai auto show this week. The seven-seat, all-wheel drive SUV comes in three variants, with the top-of-the-range model capable of going from 0 to 100 km an hour in just 3.9 seconds, about the same as a Porsche 911.

BYD’s Hong Kong-traded shares closed 1.7 per cent higher on Friday, bringing gains for the year to almost 50 per cent. That comes on top of a 24 per cent rise in 2024 and an 11 per cent increase in 2023. BLOOMBERG