The Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD sold more cars in the second quarter than ever before. A total of 700,244 vehicles were delivered, 352,163 of them with a fully electric drive, the Chinese market leader announced on Sunday. That was almost double the figure for the same quarter of the previous year.
Shares of BYD gained more than 4 percent on Monday. In the past year, the paper had collapsed by a fifth in view of the intensifying price competition. The investment company is one of the largest shareholders Berkshire Hathaway by US investor legend Warren Buffett (92) with 6 percent.
BYD had in the first quarter thanks to the strong increase in sales earned five times as much as a year before. The rival of Tesla and Volkswagen had increased profit by 411 percent to 4.1 billion yuan (541 million euros). Forbes now estimates the assets of BYD boss Wang Chuanfu (57) at around $19 billion. The electric car manufacturer is also becoming an increasing problem for VW: Last year, the Chinese took over the market leadership for the first time since 2008 with 440,000 cars sold by the Wolfsburg core brand China away.
Tesla also convinces with key data
The US electric car manufacturer Tesla had previously presented key data for the second quarter and significantly exceeded expectations. Tesla delivered around 466,000 vehicles in the second quarter, almost twice as many as in the same period last year, the company said. Production was at almost 480,000 vehicles.
The record values allowed Tesla shares to rise more than 6 percent premarket. Since the beginning of the year, the paper has recovered strongly from last year’s slump. 2022 had the of billionaire Elon Musk (52) managed carmaker lost almost two thirds of its value, the course was quoted at a good 123 dollars at the end of the year. It has already more than doubled year-to-date to nearly $257 at the close in New York ahead of the weekend.
Tesla had boosted demand with discounts since the beginning of the year. However, as in the first quarter, production exceeded deliveries. However, at 13,560 vehicles, inventory build-up in the second quarter was smaller than in the first three months of the current year, when overproduction was just under 18,000 vehicles. Experts are looking closely at Tesla’s inventory build-up, because excessive inventories could put further pressure on price reductions.