electric car builder BYD earned five times as much in the past quarter as a year earlier thanks to the strong increase in sales. The rival of Tesla and Volkswagen increased profit by 411 percent to 4.1 billion yuan, according to a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange on Thursday.
Chinese sales surged nearly 80 percent to 120.2 billion yuan. BYD’s figures exceeded analysts’ expectations. BYD sold 550,000 electric cars worldwide in the first quarter, almost twice as many as in the same period last year.
In its home country, BYD sold around 440,000 cars. For the first time since at least 2008, the company took over the market leadership of the Wolfsburg core brand VW passenger cars China away. VW is currently having major problems in China. Above all, the sale of electric cars is not going well, in this area Volkswagen only has a market share of 2 percent in China “Financial Times”
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BYD, on the other hand, now has a market share of 40 percent for electric cars in China, according to the newspaper. Elon Musk’s (51) Tesla follows in second place with a market share of 11 percent.
The year 2022 had already been extremely successful for BYD. The company increased its net profit last year by 400 percent.
The investment company is one of the largest shareholders in BYD Berkshire Hathaway by US investor legend Warren Buffett (92). BYD wants to deliver between 3 and 3.7 million electric cars this year. BYD is also in business as a manufacturer of battery storage for other applications. According to “FT”, BYD’s market share in China is 17 percent for batteries for electric cars and 62 percent for plug-in hybrid vehicles.